Some Where, Out There
by The ORIGINAL Corky
Summary: Sam leaps into 18 yearold Alex Albright whose best friend was kidnapped when they were 8 years old. It's up to him to help his friends' mother to continue living and to find his friend before it's too late. NOW COMPLETE! NOW COMPLETE!
1. Chapter 1

**_Disclaimer: I don't own Sam or Al, all legal rights belong to Universal and Donald P. Bellisario. I do however own the other characters. All events, and simularities to actual people is purly coincidental._**

**_Author's Note: Ok...this is my second try on a QL story...hopefully I can finish this one. I've tried to work on Character Connection but...I've recently moved back home and am no longer working for Disney so...I dunno...all my ideas stayed back in Florida I guess. But, we'll try this one._**

****

Sam leaps into 18 year-old Alex Albright whose best friend was kidnapped when they were 8 years old. It's up to him to help his friends' mother to continue living and to find his friend before it's too late.

_Theorizing that one could time travel within their own lifetime, Dr. Sam Beckett stepped into the Quantum Leap accelerator and vanished. He awoke to find himself trapped in the past, facing mirror images that were not his own and driven by an unknown force to change history for the better. His only guide on this journey is Al, an observer from his own time, who appears in the form of a hologram that only Sam can see and hear. And so Dr. Beckett finds himself leaping from life to life, striving to put right what once went wrong and hoping each time that his next leap, will be the leap home. _

Shabbona, Illinois

June 13, 1998

Dr. Samuel Beckett had been leaping through time for longer than he could remember by now. He knew it had to be quite a few years now since his friend and observer Al was starting to show the sure signs of age and fatigue. He had been changing other people's lives for the better and yet God, time, fate, or whatever still didn't feel it was time for him to leap home.

As the roar of the space-time continuum started to subside and the electric like tingle began to surge through him, the bright blue light that would encompass him died down and he found himself standing on the porch of a house dressed in a hunter green army dress uniform. Looking up into the glass of the storm door, he saw the face of a young man with dark gray/blue eyes. Unable to get a good look at the man he leapt into, the brown wooden door opened and suddenly he was looking into the face of a middle-aged woman.

"Alex?" She asked, unsure if what she was seeing was real or not. Sam put on a smile and nodded.

"Uh…yeah." He said, holding his arms out some. The woman behind the storm door broke into tears as she threw open the obstructing door to get at her son.

"Oh my baby! Oh I wanted to come and see you graduate so much but…well…you understand. Oh why didn't you tell me you were coming home already? I thought you said you were gonna do a little bit of a road trip before you came home?" She cried, holding him tightly. Sam knitted his eyebrows together as he stammered to think of something to say.

"I uh, I wanted to surprise you and dad?" He said, hoping there was a dad to the boy he had leapt into. Megan Albright pulled back and smiled at her 18 year-old son as she ran her hands over his cheeks. She was a very pretty lady with bright, loving brown eyes and shoulder length brownish/blonde hair.

"Oh your father is gonna be so happy to see you when he gets home from work. Oh Alex…come in, come in! Get out of the rain." She said, holding open the door. It was only then that Sam noticed the rain dripping off the downspouts and onto the bright purple violets planted around the porch. Grabbing up his bag, he walked into the entry way of the house and looked around.

The entryway was painted a very soothing shade of yellow with very light pink ceramic tile for the floor. A mirror hung on the wall next to a coat rack on Sam's left and, after taking off his hat, he finally got a good look at himself. Alex had dark gray/blue eyes that showed a hidden pain deep down inside and had nicely combed blonde hair that had slightly taken the shape of his hat.

To Sam's immediate right was a flight of smooth and polished oak wood stairs that had a matching oak railing leading up to the second floor of the house. Along the pale yellow wall to the stairs were pictures hanging in frames of all shapes and sizes; some frames were home made while the others were clearly store bought. Moving past the stairs and continuing down the short entryway hall, Sam noted an archway leading into a dark tan living room on his left. The tan leather couch was with its back to the archway, facing an entertainment center that contained a TV, VCR, and CD player. Also in the living room was a matching tan leather chair and love seat with a table in between.

"Alex honey? Are you hungry?" his mother called from the kitchen at the end of the hall.

"Um…no, no not really." Called back Sam as he tried to soak in everything around him.

"Where is everyone?" He asked, noticing the family picture hanging on the wall in the living room. Sam could tell that the picture was taken some time ago and that everyone in the picture was smiling brightly at the camera. It wasn't a formal picture but instead looked as if it were taken in a backyard during a summer BBQ. There were three young boys in the picture, two looking very similar in age, weight, and build, the third boy looked a year or two younger than the others did and was slightly thin and frail boned. Along with the boys were two little girls, both looking the same age but one with striking blonde hair, the other with more brownish hair. Standing behind the children was a young couple. Sam recognized the woman right away as being the one who opened the door, the man he didn't know though. The man had short cut light brown hair with a slightly receding hairline and the same gray/blue eyes as Alex had.

"Well, Randy is God only knows where. Landon went to a computer convention in Chicago with Addie. And as for your sisters; Emily might be up at the Fox Valley mall, I really have no clue and Annie _said_ she was going to the skate park in Waterman but, I doubt that. Oh Alex, it's so good to have you home again. I know that it was your choice to go to military school to get away from everything that reminded you of Bash, but, for the past eight years things just haven't been the same." Mrs. Albright paused for a moment and forced a smile on her face. "Come on, you must be anxious to see your old room again and get thing unpacked and all."

"Um, yeah…" _Al where are you?_

Mrs. Albright led Sam up the stairs and as they climbed Sam couldn't help but look at the pictures. There were class pictures of all five kids from all twelve years of school along with a few candid shots of the siblings with other kids he didn't know. There was one picture that stuck out to him for some reason though at the top of the stairs that made him stop and actually look it over very carefully. It was a picture of two young boys, both dressed in dirty, holey blue jeans, one was wearing a red T-shirt while the other had on a blue one. The one in the red shirt Sam figured must have been Alex when he was seven or eight and that the boy with shaggy brown hair and deep brown innocent eyes must have been his best friend. Both were looking at the camera, the young Alex with a big cheesy grin on his face and his arm around the other little boys' shoulder, and his friend with a shy, almost bashful, smile and a look that showed just how innocent the boy was.

"It's not healthy to try and bury the past, Alex. I thought after you went off to military school I'd put it back up as a reminder of happier times. You know as well as I do that Bash never liked seeing you sad, just like you never liked seeing him sad. He would have wanted you to keep that picture up. I know that it was the last time you two were together and happy, that's why I thought I'd put it back up. I know that it's been a long ten years and, even ten years is probably not enough time to get over what happened to you and him, but, at least it's given you time to try." Mrs. Albright said, standing behind Sam as she looked at the picture also. Sam had no idea what had happened to Alex and his best friend Bash ten years earlier but he hoped soon Al would arrive and fill him in. Turning back to the upstairs hallway, Mrs. Albright moved down to the last door on the right and opened it.

"Here you go sweetheart. I've tried to keep it cleaned up for you but, after so many times it's hard to clean what's already been cleaned." She said looking around the dark blue room. Sam stepped in and set the bag down next to the door. The room looked like it belonged to a ten year old boy which made sense to Sam when he realized Alex had left for military school at the age of ten.

"It looks great mom. Just like I remember, thanks." He said, moving over to his bed and then to the dresser.

"Your closet and dresser are empty. I figured I'd get rid of all your old clothes since you grew out of them. But everything else is still here, I didn't want to get rid of any of your toys or things because I didn't wanna throw out something you still wanted so…you can decide."

"Great. Um, I'm actually pretty tired so, I think I'm just gonna get changed and lay down for awhile." He said, moving back over to give her a hug. Smiling, Mrs. Albright hugged him back and took in a deep breath.

"That sounds like a good idea, sweetie. When you get up, why don't you head next door and say hi to Lyss and Eric? I know Lyss would love to see you again."

"Sure, no problem." Sam said, pressing his lips together in a small smile as he nodded. Kissing his cheek, Mrs. Albright left the room, closing the door behind her.

"Wow, talk about your twilight zones. This room never changed in the eight years this kid was gone." A raspy voice said from behind Sam. Giving a small smirk, Sam turned and looked at his friend Al who was puffing away on his cigar and wandering around the room.

"Hi Al." He said simply.

"Huh? Oh, yeah, hi Sam." Al said, sounding slightly out of it as he moved over to the dresser where another framed picture of young Alex and the boy named Bash sat with a single red Hot Wheels® next to it. Al had a slight distant look in his eyes as he looked at the picture before he shook his head and looked back down at his flashing hand link.

"What's going on, Al?" Sam questioned, not liking how quiet the Italian was.

"What? Uh, nothing, nothing don't worry about it. Your name is Alex Albright, you're eighteen and you just got back from military school. You're in a little speck on the map town called Sha…bbon…what?" Al grumbled as he smacked the hand link a few times to get it to work right again. "Oh, Shabbona, Illinois and it's June 13th, 1998. Your mother is Megan but you call her ma, and your dad is, heh, his name is Sam too but you call him Pops. You're the oldest of five and are 5 minutes older than your twin brother Randy." Al said as he continued to wander the room reading straight from the hand link. Sam looked at the framed picture and Hot Wheel® for a minute before looking back at Al.

"Ok, so what am I here to do?"

"Uhh…well…Ziggy says it could be a number of things like, uh…well…for one keeping your next door neighbor from overdosing on anti-depressants. And the other thing could be to help your twin brother break the news to your parents that him and his girlfriend are gonna have a baby. Ziggy's not sure." He said, shrugging some as he glanced back at the picture on the dresser again.

"Is there maybe something else Ziggy says I may be able to do?" Asked Sam as he noticed Al's actions and stepped up next to him.

"Uhh…no, nothing right now."

"Ok, then let me ask you something. What happened ten years ago to these two kids?"

Al was silent for a long and awkward moment before punching the buttons in on the hand link. Lights flashed from it and it gave a small squeal in protest which caused Al to remove his cigar from his mouth and look up into thin air.

"I don't care if she's still working on it, just send me everything you've got, Gooshie." He grumbled, loud enough for the invisible person back at the project center to hear and obey. Soon Al was taking a deep breath and looking at Sam with the same hatred and anger in his eyes that was there when he talked about what happened with his sister Trudy.

"'On Wednesday, June 18th, 1988 at 9:07pm two eight year old boys were abducted by a 49 year old male driving a white 1986 Monte Carlo. The boys were last seen crossing the railroad tracks heading south and were reported to be heading to the local grocery store for some candy. They were wearing at the time blue holey jeans, one with a red shirt the other with a blue one.' That's what the local newspaper wrote. Gooshie's pushing Ziggy to her max to find more info for us, but, right now that's all we've got." Al said, glaring off at an unseen force, an inner demon still plaguing the poor man's mind about his sister's death at such a young age. Sam looked at the picture and realized that the description Al had just given him was exactly what the two boys were wearing in the picture.

"They got kidnapped? Well…obviously they were found or released or something if I'm standing here and his mother knows him."

"No…Alex escaped. Haven't you noticed there aren't any new pictures of this boy anywhere? They never found him. And Alex, young Alex was too traumatized to even remember where they were when he managed to get away. And the Alex sitting in the waiting room claims to not remember any of it. Beeks is in there with him now trying to get his memory to open up and give us some info but the kid isn't budging. All he'll say is that Wednesday, June 18th, 1988 was Bash's birthday, he turned eight, and when he woke up the next morning Bash was gone. He has absolutely no memory of being kidnapped or of what ever it was that that sicko did to them." Al explained, clenching one fist together while his other hand held both his cigar and the hand link, his voice tight with pent up anger.

"God, that just really gets to me, ya know? Why would someone abduct two little kids like that? If I could find him I'd…"

"Al, I know, I feel the same way. Does Ziggy know if this Bash is still out there?" Sam asked as he sat down on the small, twin sized bed with red fire trucks driving all over the blue bed sheets.

"No cuz all we can get from Alex is that his name was Bash. Beeks asked him what his last name was and he just looked at her and said he was just Bash. So, we're getting nowhere on that one. We'll keep trying though. Although according to police records the second 'victim' of the kidnapping was presumed deceased in the year 2000." Sam could tell that the subject was really starting to get to Al and he wished for the hundredth time he could reach out and put a comforting hand on his friend's shoulder.

"The sooner this one's done with, the better." Al muttered around his now stubby cigar before opening the Imagining Chamber door and stepping through it.

"I'm gonna go see what Ziggy's got for us, if anything yet." He said softly.

"Yeah, that sounds like a good idea." Sam answered as the door whooshed shut and it left him in total silence.

"Well mom told me you were home, but she didn't tell me you had cracked up and started talking to yourself." A voice said from the doorway. Sam's head popped up and he looked at the place from which the voice came from. There, leaning against the doorframe was a boy no more than 16 or 17 with shaggy blondish/brown hair and a very youthful face, but with a pair of very nicely fashioned sunglasses on.

"Uh, what?" Sam asked, a common response for him when caught off guard by someone he didn't know in a leap.

"Mom. She told me that you had come home but she didn't tell me anything about you talking to yourself. I don't think that's something they taught you at school, bro. It's also not healthy. Of course I suppose it's even worse when the air starts talking back, so…as long as it's not doing that yet, I guess you're in the clear. Oh wait, you aren't arguing with yourself are you? Cuz that'd be bad too."

"No, I was just uh, thinking out loud to myself that maybe it'd be a good idea to head next door and see Lyss and Eric. You wanna come?" Sam asked, hoping they would so they could lead the way and maybe he could find out their name.

"Sure, but don't I get a hug first? I mean, hell, last time I saw you I was only 8 years-old." The boy answered as he gave an impish smile and held his arms out for a hug.

"Oh, yeah, sure, of course. Sorry, I'm just trying to get use to everything again. I gotta remember that I'm home and not at school, nothing's that formal here." Sam answered, getting up and hugging the boy who seemed much too short for 16. Smiling, the other boy pulled back and looked at him.

"It's good to have you home, big bro. Now come on, maybe you can brighten up Aunt Lyss' day." The boy said as they started off down the stairs and for the front door.

"We're heading over to Aunt Lyss and Uncle Eric's, mom! Be back later!"

"K, Landon. I'll have dinner ready for you when you get back so make sure you aren't gone too late. Tell anyone over there that who ever is interested is more than welcome to come over for dinner." Mrs. Albright called back from the kitchen as Landon tugged his baseball cap on and smiled at Sam.

"No prob. Latah. C'mon, Alex." Said Landon, opening the door and bounding down the porch steps. Sam nodded as he closed the door and watched for a moment while Landon took a right and headed down the sidewalk towards the medium gray, two story farm house style, home. As Sam followed Landon, he looked the place over closely. There was a nice wrap around porch, stretching from one side of the house, around the front, and straight on to the back with a nice white two person swing in front of the large picture window. To the left of the window was the dark gray door with tiled glass window in the middle of it. Landon stood on the porch in front of the door waiting for Sam before he turned and knocked.

"Lyss always told us not to knock but, I never feel right just walking in." Landon said, shoving his hands in his pockets. Sam nodded and looked around, trying to take everything in just as the door opened and a girl about the same age as Landon stood there smiling and shaking her head.

"Ya know Landon, you should just install a tunnel system between your basement and ours so that…" The girl trailed off and looked at Sam in mild confusion.

"Alex? Is it really you? Oh my God, Alex!" She exclaimed, throwing her arms around him in a warm hug. Landon laughed as he stepped into the house.

"Take it easy on him Addie; he's been gone so long now he's talking to himself." Landon joked as he reached out for the girls hand and pulled her away from his brother. Addie smiled and slightly blushed as she looked down at their hands and then up into the face of her new boyfriend.

"Sorry Alex. I just haven't seen you in so long. Ever since…well…you know since when. Boy is my mom gonna be happy to see you! At least, I hope she will be. C'mon, I'll take ya to see her. She's been spending _a lot_ of time in Bash's room lately. More than she usually does." Said Addie as she led them up a flight of stairs that were just to the left of the front door. Unlike at Alex's house, there were no pictures hanging on the wall leading to the second floor, just bare navy blue painted walls. At the very top of the slightly winding staircase was a door that was partly open, and the sounds of soft lullaby music was coming from it. Addie took a deep breath as they reached the door and turned to look at her followers.

"Ok…she's in here. God I hope she doesn't start crying or something weird like that."

"Good luck bro. If you need anything," Landon said, point to a door, just down the hall and immediately on the right, "We'll be right in there, just call."

"Uh…right…ok." Sam said, unsure of what all of that was suppose to mean. Placing a hand on the door, he slowly pushed it open the rest of the way and was shocked to see a room that looked like it belonged to a little child. It was painted a dark blue/gray color with a maroon colored ceiling. Along the top of the room, just below the ceiling was a papered boarder of blue, red, green, and yellow race cars along with checkered flags. In the middle of the floor was a play-mat carpet of a town with building and roads all over it. Along the left wall was a modified bunk bed; where the bottom bunk should have been was instead a table stretching the length of the bed with an electric car racetrack set up on it, the top bunk was as it should have been and was covered in race car sheets and blankets. In the corner on the left hand side was a small wooden dresser that on it sat a picture frame holding the same photo as in Alex's room, a small CD player, and a rather new looking remote controlled car. In the right corner of the room, next to what Sam assumed was a closest, was a rocking chair that was slowly rocking back and forth as a lullaby continued to play on the CD player. Stepping into the room more, Sam could hear words being muttered along with the song and wondered what they could be.

"And even though I know how very far apart we are, it helps to think we might be wishing on the same bright star, and when the night wind starts to sing it's lonesome lullaby, it helps to think we're sleeping underneath the same big sky. Some where, out there, if love can see us through, then we'll be together, some where out there, out where dreams, come true."

Sam paused behind the rocking chair and hesitantly placed a hand on the top of it. The chair instantly stopped rocking, and the singing ceased. Gulping some, he slowly stepped around in front of the rocker and looked down at the lady in front of him. The woman was dressed in a pair of baggy light yellow and blue pajama's that had Disney's Chip-n-Dale all over them. Her straggly medium brown hair was dashed with gray streaks and was a tossled mess. Sam could tell by the worry lines on her face and deep and heavy bags under her dull brown eyes, that the kidnapping of her child, and the worry over him, had aged her far beyond her years and had given her many of sleepless nights. In her small, frail looking arms, were two stuffed animals; one was a very well loved tan horse that nearly had all it's stuffing loved out of it and the other was a well taken care of teddy bear dressed in an outfit worn by fighter pilots during WWI.

Alyssa Biondo wasn't actually Alex or Landon's aunt, she was an honorary aunt to them, just as Megan Albright was honorary aunt to her children. She had been, at one point in time, a very happy-go-lucky kind of woman, always smiling and playing with her children. Sebastian, or Bash as everyone called him, was her oldest child and had been born with a slight mental handicap which left him unable to catch on to things as fast as the others and also shy and quiet. Though at the time she would have never admitted it, Bash was always her "favorite" child, mostly due to the fact of how innocent he always was to the world around him.

Alyssa always felt it was her fault her son and Alex had been kidnapped that day in June nearly ten years ago. Both families had been celebrating Bash and his twin sister Melanie-Jean's, MJ for short, 8th birthday at the Biondo residence and it had been Alyssa's idea to let Alex and Sebastian go to the local convenience store by themselves to get some soda's and candy while the other kids played games Bash didn't want to. She thought it would be a nice way to show both boys that she trusted them enough to let them walk the few blocks and back alone. Before that night, if anyone would have asked her if that sleepy little speck on the road town was safe or not, she would have laughed and commented on how nothing ever happens in that town. Since that night though, she constantly kicked herself for being so arrogant in the safeness of their town to let her son, along with her best friend's son, wander the streets alone after dark. When neither boy returned home from what should have been a fifteen minute journey, and Alyssa learned that they had been kidnapped, she had crumbled to the floor sobbing. She sat up for days next to the phone, waiting to hear some word, any word, from either Bash or the kidnapper. When a week passed and Alex finally showed up on his own front porch looking cold, hungry, and exhausted, Alyssa had what many considered a nervous breakdown. Many doctors tried to commit her to the psycho ward for treatment, but her husband Eric wouldn't allow it, saying the best way to treat her was to let her stay at home where all of Sebastian's things were.

As time went on, Alyssa did improve some. She began taking care of herself somewhat more and even went out from time to time. But now that it was nearing not only the tenth anniversary of Bash being gone, it was also going to be his golden birthday, Alyssa seemed to be slipping back into her old ways with only her Zoloft to keep her on the good side of sanity.

Sam, as Alex, looked at the frail middle aged woman and gave the best smile he could.

"Hi, uh, Aunt Lyss." He said, hoping it sounded like something the real Alex would have said. Alyssa looked at him in strange confusion for a moment before her eyes brightened some and a weak smile appeared on her face.

"Alex? Little Alex Albright? It…it can't be…where's Bash? Is he ok? Where is he Alex?" She said, her eyes suddenly becoming dark and a frantic look spread across her face. Unsure of what else to do, Sam grasped her shoulders and gave her a gentle shake to snap her out of it.

"It's me, Aunt Lyss. Alex…I'm 18, I just got back from military school. It's 1998. I don't know where Bash is." He said in a soft and calming voice. Sam could feel the mother trembling under his hands and watched as the darkness faded from her eyes and tears quickly rimmed them. Shakily reaching her hands out, Alyssa wrapped her arms around him and began to cry into his shoulder.

"Oh Alex! Alex…I…it's all my fault! I'm sorry! Oh God…I…I miss him…so…so much! I should have gone with you! I should have gone with…" she sobbed. Sam held her close and allowed her to cry for a few minutes before he heard footsteps coming up the stairs and stopping in the doorway.

"Alex? Go on home…I'll get her." A soft and low voice said from behind him. Sam turned to see a man a few inches shorter than he standing there. The man was roughly the same age as Alyssa, maybe a year or two older, and was about the same skinny build as Al, perhaps a little smaller. Dressed in a pair of blue jeans and black T-shirt, one would easily mistake him for a teenager if it weren't for the same deep worry lines that embedded themselves in his face as in his wife's.

"You sure? I could help, I mean." Sam said as he gently pried himself away from the still crying mother. Sighing heavily and running a weary hand thru his shaggy mop of dark brown hair, the other man nodded and looked at his wife.

"I'm sure. Not much you could help with anyways…not much I can help."

"He's gone, Eric! He's gone! He's gone…"

"I know, Lyss…I know he is, it's ok, I've got'cha. It's ok…" Eric answered as he knelt down and wrapped his arms around his still crying wife. Sam looked at the couple and couldn't help but feel a lump form in his throat as he saw the pain and suffering the two had been through. After a moment, Alyssa's sobs subsided and Eric gave a sigh as he stood, scooping the now sleeping woman up in his arms and looking back at Sam.

"Help me get her into our room." Said Eric as he carefully moved out of the room and down the few feet to next door on the left side of the hall. Motioning to it, Sam quickly opened it and let Eric go through first so that he could lay Alyssa down on the bed. Eric gently placed her on the bed and stared down at her sadly as he placed a stubborn lock of hair behind her ear. Taking in a deep breath and letting it out slowly, he glanced back at Sam and gave a slight smile.

"Let's go downstairs; I think we might still have some soda. We can have a drink and we can talk." He said, trying to sound like nothing was wrong as he slid past the boy he thought was his best friend's son to head to the stairs. Taking one last glance at Alyssa, Sam turned and quickly followed down to the kitchen where Eric was moving to the refrigerator to find a couple of soda pops for them both. Sam stepped up next to the table and observed his surroundings carefully.

"So how have you been, Alex?" Eric asked, handing him a can of Dr. Pepper as he closed the refrigerator door.

"Um, good, real good."

"That's good to hear. Wish I could say the same about things around here. Lyssa still blames everything that happened on herself. No one can tell her any different either, she won't let them. I think I keep losing her more and more every year." Eric said, shaking his head sadly, gulping down some of his soda before sighing heavily. Sam took a drink of his soda and looked at him in slight confusion.

"I don't really remember what happened that she's blaming herself for." He said hoping that he'd be able to find out some information. Instead he received a sympathetic look and shake of the head from Eric.

"You're lucky, then Alex. You're the only one out of the two families who was able to block it out of your memory. The younger ones kind of remember it, but it's more like a bad dream kind of feeling to them, they were too little to really fully remember it. But ask MJ, Randy, or either set of twins and they could go into full detail of it all. If I were you, I wouldn't do it though. Especially not MJ, she's having a hard enough time right now, she doesn't need that."

"I wish I could remember, even some of it. Maybe he's still out there." Sam said, finding himself racking his brain to think of something, anything, that could help them find their son. Eric gave another sympathetic smile and patted his shoulder.

"Don't hurt yourself, buddy. Everyone but Lyssa has pretty much come to terms with the fact that he's never coming back and that he's probably not even alive anymore. We'd love to think that he is, but, somewhere in our minds we know it's probably not true. Hey, you better get home. Don't need your mom worrying about you again. It's good to have you back home again, Alex. I only wish Bashy were here to welcome you home also. I know he would have loved to have seen you." Eric said, tossing his now empty can of soda into the garbage before heading off towards a door at the far end of the kitchen. Sam watched as he disappeared down a flight of stairs before he got up and headed out back towards his house. He had just reached the front porch of Alyssa and Eric's house when he heard the Imagining Chamber door open and close next to him. Scanning the area quickly to make sure no one was in hearing distance, Sam turned towards Al and froze when he saw the look on his friends face. The look was a cross between disgust and hatred, with a small hint of sympathy in his eyes.

"What's wrong, Al? What did you find out?" Sam asked, automatically knowing that something was not right. Al looked at with a slight glare before pacing across the porch.

"Beeks got Alex to crack some. His best friend's name was Sebastian 'Bash' Biondo. They'd been best friends since birth and Alex had always been his protector from everything that could have harmed him. Sebastian was born with a slight mental handicap and it made him real quiet and shy." Al said, the hatred and disgust boiling up inside him once again. Knowing that this leap now hit a very personal note with Al made it all the more important to Sam and he know that he had to try and find some way of proving Bash was either still alive some where or finally put his soul and Alyssa's mind to rest and prove that he's dead.

"Did you have Ziggy run a search on his last name? Try to have her find some sort of records on it?" Sam asked.

"Yeah. The only thing she could find was a death certificate. It was dated June 18th, 1998."

"June 18th, 1998? That's only five days from now. Who was it for?" Sam questioned, his eyebrows knitted together, knowing that it was the date of Bash's birthday and his abduction.

"Alyssa Marie Biondo, Bash's mother." Al answered solemnly. The color drained from Sam's face when he heard that, and he had to turn away from Al to keep his friend from seeing the pain in his eyes. Putting a hand over his mouth, Sam quickly racked his brain before turning back to Al who was staring down at his hand link.

"Get me any and all the information you can about the Biondo's and Albright's before June 18th. I don't know why but, I just have this feeling that Sebastian is still alive out there. And if we can find a way of proving that before the 18th then we can probably save his mother's life and his. I'm gonna see if I can get Alex's parents talking about the kidnapping, or even just Bash. Maybe that can give me some idea of what to do." Sam said, knowing that Sebastian was the real reason for the leap. Al took a deep breath and let it out slowly.

"Don't worry Al, if Bash is still out there, I won't let him suffer the same fate as Trudy. I'll find him." Looking at Sam with hurt and sorrow in his eyes, Al silently pushed the right combination of buttons to reopen the chamber door and exited without saying a word. Sam could tell that Al was still fighting with his inner demons about what happened to his sister Trudy, and he know that Al swore if he had the power never to let that happen to anyone again.

Heading back to Alex's house, Sam silently climbed the stairs and walked into Alex's room. He moved to the faded photo of the smiling young boys and felt a lump form in his throat. Picking it up and holding onto it carefully, he took a deep breath.

"Don't you worry, Bash. We'll find you."


	2. Chapter 2

**_Disclaim: You know the drill, only the original characters are mine. Other wise, I don't own anything._**

Chapter Two

That night around 7:30 Mrs. Albright called everyone down for dinner and Sam slowly trudged down the stairs, dreading having to face the rest of the family. By the time he reached the kitchen table everyone had assembled in their seats with one open chair remaining between Landon and Mrs. Albright. Taking a deep breath, Sam sat down and looked around at everyone at the table. Sitting across from Landon and him were two girls, one with bright blond hair and the other with dyed black hair; next to the smiling girls was another boy Sam realized must have been Alex's twin brother Randy. Randy was the only one in the family giving him a very judgmental look. Uncomfortable under the twin's glare, Sam shifted in his seat and followed along with everyone else as they began to eat the meal their mother had prepared for them. All throughout dinner, the girls, who Sam learned were named Emily-the blond-and Annie-the dyed black, kept rambling about how great it was to have their brother back. Everyone seemed happy to see him, except Randy.

After dinner had ended, Sam headed back up the stairs to Alex's room and began to unpack the boys things and put them back where he thought they would have gone. He had only been unpacking a few moments when he felt as if someone were watching and, expecting to see Al standing there, Sam smirked and turned only to look right into the face of an aggravated Randy.

"Oh, hi Randy. I didn't know it was you." Sam said, moving towards the dresser to put his shirts away.

"Drop the act. Listen, I don't know who you are, but you are NOT my brother. I don't know why my parents and siblings seem to think that you are, but I _know_ that you are not Alex." He said, his arms crossed over his chest as he stared him down coldly. Sam froze in his tracks and silently thought about how he could possibly know. The only people who could know were children, animals, and as Al called them, Nutso's, so how could he know? Then he remembered hearing once that twins have an extra special bond sometimes that enables them to know when something is wrong with the other even if they are no where near each other.

"I don't know what you're talking about Randy. It's me." Sam answered, forcing a smile on his face as he shrugged and turned back to the dresser.

"Bullshit you are. Now you listen, and you listen good. I don't know what you want from us, or from the Biondo's, but you just leave Lyss alone. She's been through enough, the last thing she needs is for some imposter to come in here and try to give her hope that Bash is still alive out there. So why don't you just pack up your shit right now, and get the hell out before I call the cops." Randy threatened, taking a step closer to him, trying hard to intimidate Sam. Taking a deep breath, Sam knew it was useless to argue, so turned and looked the other boy in the eyes.

"Ok, I'll tell you who I am, and you need to take my word on it that it's the absolute truth. Do we have a deal?" He asked, holding out his hand. Randy thought about it for a moment. He was a very cautious young man and so felt he had to weigh all his options before deciding on anything. Finally, after a long moment, he reached out and shook Sam's hand.

"Yeah, ok, fine."

"Good." Sam closed the door and looked back at Randy.

"My name is Dr. Sam Beckett, I'm a scientist. I'm from the year 2006. In the year 1999 I gained funding to start a project that myself and a few other scientist and my best friend developed called Project Quantum Leap. See I had come up with this idea that a person can leap, or time travel, within their own life time. Only trouble was, was that I had to prove this theory or we'd lose our funding and years of research and development would go down the drain. So I tested the Quantum Leap Accelerator on myself and I've been leaping through time into different people in different decades ever since. I know that's got to sound crazy, but I swear to you it's the God honest truth." Sam explained in the easiest way he knew how. Randy raised an eyebrow at him and shifted his weight from one foot to the other.

"You're just randomly going from time to time?"

"Exactly. Here, this may help. Say this string is you're life. It has a beginning, middle, and end, right? Well, if you hook the beginning and end together it's just this continuing loop. But if you take that same string and bunch it together, all the different points in your life are touching, so at any time you could go from your birth to your first date in one tick of the cosmic clock."

"Why don't you just 'leap' back to your own time and stay there? It's obvious that it works."

"It's not that easy. See, when I leaped, my body stayed in the accelerator but the person I leap into their, aura let's say, inhabits my body so everyone around it see's that person and not me. But that person when they look in the mirror see's my face instead of theirs, just like when I look in the mirror I see their face and not mine. I don't even remember what I really look like any more. But, at the time of my leap, the retrieval method wasn't working yet, so they weren't able to get me back. And, well, it still isn't working."

"Well then leap somewhere else."

"I wish I could but, I can't. We haven't figured out who or why but, for some reason, the people I leap into have problems or something bad has happened in their lives that needs to be fixed and I can't leap until I've put whatever it was that went wrong right. Sometimes it's easy like stopping two kids from playing with matches in an attic but most times it's something that's hard to figure out and take care of. This one I hope I can take care of as quick as I can."

"Yeah? What's this one?" Randy questioned, his tone of voice softening some as he slowly began to believe what Sam was telling him.

"To find Sebastian and to stop his mother from over-dosing on anti-depressants on his birthday." Sam answered solemnly, praying that Randy wouldn't freak out on him and call the cops for real. Randy was silent for a minute, scanning Sam from head to toe as he thought about everything he had just been told.

"So, my brother, wherever he is, he's ok?"

"He's perfectly ok. In fact I'll have Al, uh my friend who checks up on me and gives me info on the leaps and things, I'll have him give me a update on him for you. So, can you keep this just between you and me and help me?"

Randy stared at Sam for a moment, his eyebrows knitted together in concentration. He wanted to think of some reason not to believe Sam but he was finding it hard to do. Somewhere in the back of his mind, things made sense to him. He didn't know why but, if it meant trying to help mend the two broken families, he was all for it. Stepping closer to him, Randy lowered his arms.

"Alright, I suppose I can. On one condition." Randy stated, raising a finger at him threateningly.

"Name it."

"Don't you dare give Lyss false hope unless you know for certain that Bash is alive and we can find him and bring him home. Got it? Because if you do, so help me God I don't care if you're a military school graduate I _will_ kill you." Sam paused when he heard this. Seeing the deep seeded agony in the young man's eyes, Sam nodded and held out his hand.

"You have my word on it, Randy." Taking his hand, Randy nodded and sighed heavily.

"So, do you have even the slightest idea about anything that might help us find Bash?"

"Right now no. But we're working on it. Hopefully Al and Ziggy can find something out soon. But, uh, right now all we have is that on June 18th, Alyssa Biondo overdosed on anti-depressants and died. So what I need you to do is to keep an eye on her. Now, do you have any good solid reason for staying over there for the next few days?" Sam asked, pacing Alex's room as his brain went into overdrive and began to run different ideas through. Randy coughed and lowered his eyes, rubbing the back of his neck like an awkward teenager. Sam stopped and turned to look at him. He could tell that something was on Randy's mind but he didn't know what.

"Well? Do you?" He asked again. Lifting his eyes, Randy opened his mouth but paused when he heard his mother calling up to him.

"Randy! MJ's on the phone. She said it was important." Both men looked at each other before bounding down the stairs. Grabbing the phone, Randy quickly ducked out of hearing range and began an obviously secret conversation with the girl on the phone. Knitting his eyebrows together, Sam wandered off to find Alex's mother.

As he walked, he couldn't help but think about what the real Alex went through in the time that he was held captive by whoever it was that had kidnapped him and his best friend. They were only eight years old and what Sam knew about the mentally handicapped, no matter how slight a condition it may be, to be suddenly thrust into a situation that they didn't understand was a scary and intimidating thing, causing years if not a lifetime of trauma. He thought about what it must have been like to be the young Alex trying to protect his best friend from harm. Sam wondered what sort of things their captor did to them. The thought of it sent shivers through his body and he understood why Alex would chose to go to a military school. Who was it that had kidnapped them? How long was Alex at least held captive? What happened to Bash? How did Alex escape? Where were they during captivity? Questions ran through Sam's mind like a runaway train and he had a hard keeping his mouth shut and not start questioning out loud.

Sam walked into the living room, questions still flooding his mind. Moving over to the couch, he found Mrs. Albright curled up in the corner of it, staring blankly off into space. Knitting his eyebrows together, Sam slid his hands into his pockets and looked at her for a minute. When she didn't acknowledge him being there, Sam coughed softly, causing her to lift her head and smile at him.

"Oh, Alex…I didn't even know you were there. What's up baby?" She asked, uncurling herself and sitting up straight. Sam sat down next to her and turned to face her.

"You ok?"

"I'm fine, Sweetheart. Just thinking about how nice it is to have all my kids back together under one roof." She lied, hoping her smile would make him believe her. Sam wasn't that foolish though, he'd seen through enough of Al's lies to know when something is true or not.

"No you weren't. You were thinking about that day, weren't you?"

"Alex…I…"

"It's ok, Mom. You don't have to worry about bringing up bad memories for me. I'm ready to talk about it now, to try and remember." Said Sam, reaching out and taking her hand. Mrs. Albright looked up at him with pained eyes. She wasn't sure if _she_ could talk about it. It had been the most terrifying week in her life not knowing if her son was alive or not. She hated to admit it, but she was selfish. In her mind she knew that Alyssa was still fighting with herself over whether or not Sebastian was still alive. She knew that the past few years for Alyssa had been filled with heartbreaking nightmares, anxiety attacks, and even bouts of sever paranoia. Yet even knowing all this, she couldn't help but remember how in that week it felt like no one else in the world mattered, how it felt as if the world were crumbling down around her. Shaking her head, she broke the locked gaze with Sam.

"I'm not. I'm sorry baby. G'night." She said before standing up and kissing his forehead. Sam watched as she walked from the living room and headed up the stairs. Sighing heavily, he hung his head and run his fingers through his hair. He had to figure something out, anything.

"Hey, uh…Alex?" He heard a hesitant voice ask from behind the couch. Lifting his head, Sam turned and saw Randy leaning against the archway, his face pale.

"Yeah?"

"I have a reason to spend a few days over at Lyss'."

"Ok, that's good…that way you can keep an eye on her and, why is the color drained from your face?" Sam questioned, standing and moving towards him. Randy lifted his head and looked Sam in the eyes, his own eyes showing the fear he felt in the pit of his stomach.

"Because MJ's pregnant. God Dad's gonna kill me! Never mind Dad…Mom's gonna have my head mounted on the wall!" Suddenly Randy's face fell and he gulped audibly.

"Worse yet…Eric's gonna chop me into tiny pieces and bury me in the backyard. He's Italian ya know? He has ties to the mafia…I'll be swimming in the bottom of Shabbona Lake."

"Now, don't go panicking over this, Randy. I need your help, remember? Don't worry, after we find enough information about Bash, I'll help you break the news to the parent's ok?" Sam said, taking the teenager's shoulders. Randy looked up at him worriedly but nodded.

"Yeah, ok…um…guess I'm gonna head over there now then." Said Randy, heading up the stairs to gather enough things to last him a week before taking the short walk next door to try and comfort his terrified girlfriend.

Shaking his head, Sam slowly climbed the stairs to the second floor and entered Alex's room. He had only been in the room a minute or two before Al appeared next to the dresser and looked over at him.

"How's it going, Sam?" Al asked, pain lacing his voice. Sam looked up at Al and sat down on the little twin bed.

"Al, this leap has got me doing three things at once, how would you be doing if you were in my shoes?"

"Well…probably not so good. Your shoes are way too big for me; I'd be tripping all over the place." Al joked, hoping to lighten the mood some. When he saw the look his friend was giving him however, he knew that it hadn't worked, causing him to cough and replace his cigar in his mouth before looking down at the handlink.

"Alright then. I had Ziggy give me as much data on the Biondo's and Albright's as they could get. It's quite a sight, I gotta say. Not too exciting but, still data."

"Al? Just give me something I can work with?" Sam said, not in the mood to listen as Al tried to beat around the bush.

"Ah, well, that's the thing, see? There _isn't_ much to work with. Uh, Eric and Alyssa met while in high school, they fell madly in love, then he moved to New York to go to school for music and she went to school in Romeoville to get her pilots license. I knew I liked her for a reason. Seems she was a bush pilot for a few years before Eric finally moved back to the area and…"

"Wait, a what? What was she?"

"A bush pilot. Ya know, they fly around running errands for people, and usually land on grass strips or fields. Noncommercial. A bush pilot." Al explain, knitting his eyebrows together and raising his hands slightly the way he does when he tries to explain something in ways that made sense to Sam, or at least, he _thought_ made sense to Sam.

"Anyway, once he moved back they got married, she got pregnant with Sebastian and MJ and when they found out Sebastian was slightly handicapped she gave up flying to stay at home and take care of him. Uh, there really isn't anything else. Well they moved from Waterman into Shabbona when the kids were two, but, other than that, there really isn't anything else."

"Ok, well what about the Albright's?" Sam asked, standing up and pacing the room like a nervous father waiting to hear news about his expecting wife.

"Right, the Albrights. Not much different, except that Megan and Sam met after Eric moved back because Sam came here with him. They got married within 5 months of meeting each other, then she got pregnant with Alex and Randy. After having the kids, she went back to school to get her teaching degree and is an English teacher at the high school on the other side of town. Her husband Sam is a policeman and since Bash's disappearance has helped solve three missing persons reports and find at least two kidnap victims."

"But he hasn't been able to solve or find Bash?"

"Right."

Sam sighed heavily and ran his fingers through his hair and over his face once more. Walking to the dresser, he stopped, turned, and started to walk back towards Al.

"Ok, well…what about the kids then? Al, there's gotta be something." Sam said, frustration building within him. Al puffed on his cigar for a moment before looking back down at the handlink and giving it a few good whacks causing it to shriek out in protest.

"Typical kid stuff. Alex was Bash's best friend since birth and was always trying to protect him from the tricks Bash's younger brothers would play on him. The kids all grew up next door to each other and amazingly enough all but Bash and Alex hook up with each other. Uh, Melanie-Jean or MJ is his twin sister and is also pregnant with Randy's kid. His two younger brothers are Jacen and Lyle. Jacen's a musician like his dad and a damn good drummer, and is dating Emily, Alex's little sister. Boy are they a match. A punk with a prep. Uh…oh, Lyle is a jock, and was usually the instigator in the tricks played on Bash, and is dating Annie, Emily's twin sister, another strange match…jock/goth…who'da thunk? Geez I'd heard about close friends having similar families but this is just nutsola. Let's see…the odd ball of the family is Addison, aka Addie. She's the only one without a twin and the tomboy of the family. Not much info on her other than she's dating Landon." Al said, shrugging as he watched his friend pace back and forth. He could tell that Sam was trying hard to think of something, anything that would help but kept coming up blank.

"What about Alex's siblings? Anything that might be of use? Skip the details, just…anything that might come in handy?"

"Well, this kid Landon's a genius. Like, serious genius…a lot like you actually. Except you graduated high school when you were sixteen, Landon graduated when he was 12. He's a computer whiz and a researchaholic. He was answering million dollar questions on game shows that he saw on TV by the time he was 2. When he was 5 his dad brought home a busted record player and within three hours Landon had it fixed and running like new. He began working on broken computers at age 7 and by age 8 he was building computers that ran better than even the best computer on the market." Answered Al, who had also started pacing. Sam suddenly stopped in his tracks and turned to look at his holographic pal.

"That's it! Al you're a genius!" He exclaimed, a bright and hopeful smile on his face. Al paused and smirked as he shrugged.

"Yeah, well, I don't like to brag about…wait, what? What am I a genius for?"

"Landon. If he's such a computer genius and researcha—whatever you called him—then I'm sure he can help us find Bash!" Sam wished he could grab the hologram by the shoulders to help emphasize his point but instead decided to wave his hand towards the door. Quickly moving for the door, he knew exactly how he was going to try and find Sebastian.

"Whoa, wait a minute there Sam. You can't just go around announcing to everyone that you're not Alex Albright. They'll lock you up." Al was right, he had already told Randy the truth and he couldn't risk having another person find out the truth, not yet anyways. Frowning, Sam turned back to Al and sat back down on the bed.

"You had Ziggy run a search on Sebastian's name?" He asked, his elbows resting on his knees as he leaned forward.

"Yeah…nothing other than what I already told you."

"Did you run his full name or just first and last?"

"Just first and last."

"Try using his full name. See what that does." Sam suggested. Al punched the information into the handlink and watched it intently as results flew across the screen. Frowning, he bit down on his cigar and shook his head.

"Zilcholia. Only things we get are three guys but different names."

"What are they?"

"One is Sebastian Foster, another is Scooter Foster…don't think they're related, and the other is Scooter Biondo…apparently no relation to these Biondo's though."

"Well, what makes you say that?"

"Because Ziggy says he's 89 and living in El Salvador." Al answered, shrugging some as Sam gave a defeated sigh and rolled his eyes.

"What about the other two?" He questioned, grasping at straws to try and hang on. Al punched in a few more codes on his handlink—whack, whack, squeal, bleep—making a face, he balled his fist to try and threaten it before shaking his head.

"Nothin'. Sebastian Foster is a six year old boy living in Orlando, Florida and Scooter Foster…Ziggy can't find any data on." Sam knitted his eyebrows together and looked at Al in confusion. It was always strange when a super computer like Ziggy was unable to come up with public information on people.

"What do you mean Ziggy can't find any data on them? There's gotta be something?"

"I meant what I said, he can't find scratch! All we have is a name. It's like this Scooter Foster just appeared out of thin air one day."

"Al that is impossible and you know it."

"No it's not impossible, Sam! You remember, of course you don't remember, Angelita Carmen Guadalupe Sicilian Jiminys or whoever? She appeared out of thin air…and disappeared into it too! So it _is_ possible!"

"No, it's not. Al—"

"Sam…" Sam paused and sighed heavily as he shook his head.

"Never mind. Just…see if you can dig up anything for me? We're running out of time."

"Yeah, ok. I'll get back to you." Al said before disappearing before Sam's eyes. Blinking a few times, Sam couldn't help but chuckle.

"Well…it's impossible to appear and disappear out of thin air unless you're a hologram."


	3. Chapter 3

**_Disclaimer: The movie "Ghostbusters" is copywrited to and belongs to Universal, in fact, so do the characters of QL...interesting. The song "I Can Wait Forever" belongs to the band Air Supply. The other characters and events are mine._**

**_Author's Note: Special thanks go out to my best friend, Meggie! She helped me with what I like to call "Bashy Speak". You'll know it when you get to it. Just keep in mind when you read it his speaking was modeled after a four-year-old's speach so...it's a little hard to understand but you get the jist of it. Thank you Meggie! And also thanks to the three wonderful people who keep reviewing the story! You three make my day! Enjoy! Oh, one more thing...is anyone else having trouble inserting that ruler thing to divide different sections of the stories or is it just me? Cuz I've had that trouble at home and at school. I go to put one in and nothing happens and in the bottom of my screen I see "Error on Page" so...just curious._**

Chapter Three

The next day went rather uneventfully for Sam. He had spent most of the day looking through photo albums and scrapbooks for any kind of information he could. As far as he could think he had already been through a dozen photo albums and was just finishing up the second scrapbook. He was just about to give up with it when a newspaper clipping caught his eye. It was faded with age and Sam could tell that it had been read and held numerous times.

_Local Boy Returns Home after Missing for Week._

_Alexander Albright, age 8, returned home yesterday afternoon after having been kidnapped a week before. Sources say they had seen the boy running through the fields on his way back to his home in the rural town of Shabbona and though many tried to yield him, he continued to run until he reached his destination. Mr. Jake Arnolds, principal of Shabbona Elementary School, says "It is a great relief to myself and the town to know that he has returned home safe and sound." On June 18th, Alexander and another local boy were picked up while crossing the tracks on their way to Wisted's, the local grocery store, for candy. Hunger, exhaustion, and minor cuts and bruises are the worst that the young boy endured and family members assure us that he is doing fine. _

Sam looked at the newspaper with a furrowed brow. Did Bash's family not want to have their name released to the press? If so, then why? Wouldn't having as much information out there as possible raise the chances of finding their son? Why did the newspaper make no further references to Bash's disappearance also? And why was the principal happy about Alex's return but said nothing about Sebastian still being missing? Setting that clipping down, he saw another that appeared just as faded.

_Search efforts for local boy were halted today after officials stated there was nothing more they could do. The boy, who's name has been asked not to be revealed, has been missing_ _for nearly a month with no word. Officials say they will continue to keep a watchful eye on the community in case further information is brought to their attention._

"What?" Sam wondered out loud. "Who wrote these things?" Quickly he picked up the other article and examined it closely. Both articles had been written by a man named Archer Johnson. Knitting his eyebrows together, he quickly stood, determined to find this Archer Johnson and ask him a few questions of his own. Heading down into the basement where he learned that Landon spent most of his time, Sam moved towards the teen who had his head buried deep within a computer monitor.

"Landon! I need you're help." Landon, surprised by the sudden interruption, jumped some and nearly knocked his computer to the floor. Quickly grabbing it, he stared at Sam with wide eyes.

"Doesn't anyone know how to knock?" He asked bewildered as he tried to gather his things to keep them from falling off the table. Sam knitted his eyebrows together before shaking his head.

"I did…you didn't hear me." He lied, it was a white lie so what harm could it do?

"Oh…uh…ok then. What's up bro?"

"I need you to run a search for me. Find out where these newspaper clippings came from and where the author of them is." Sam said, holding out the two clippings. Landon took them carefully, afraid that even the slightest bit of pressure could crumble them. Looking them over, he moved to his regular desk and quickly began typing away.

"That's gonna take some time, I mean, it takes awhile to find info like that and….done." He said, resting his fingers on the keyboard. Sam looked at him in confusion.

"What? I thought you said it was going to take some time?"

"It did. That's slow for my computer." Landon said, smiling brightly.

"Ok…what have you got?"

"Both articles written for the Dekalb Chronicle, one written June 26th, 1988, the other written July 20th, 1988. Heh…Aunt Lyssa's birthday…weird." Landon said, a slightly puzzled look on his face.

"Ok, what about the writer, did you search him?"

"Don't need to." Answered Landon as he sat back in his chair. Sam was beyond confused at this point and the look on his face proved it.

"Why not?"

Landon sat up and looked at Sam for a moment before sighing. "Because he lives just down the block. You don't remember Mr. Johnson? You and Bash use to go over there all the time. He use to tell you that he had ghosts in the attic and since you guys always believed you were Ghostbusters, he'd call you over to try and get rid of them." Sam thought for a minute before nodding. This still didn't make sense to him. If Mr. Johnson knew Alex and Bash then why leave Bash's name out of the articles? Something just wasn't right.

"Landon, does it make sense to you that my name would be mentioned in the article but not Bash's?"

"No, not really but, everybody in town knew you, knew us. I mean, our mom's the English teacher at the high school, our dad's on the police department, our parents were well known."

"That shouldn't matter though, Landon. Bash was missing with me, and is still missing but yet it seemed like I was the only one people cared about. I'm going to go talk to the newspaper, see if they can tell me who told them not to publish Bash's name. And then I'm going to go talk to Mr. Johnson." Sam said as he moved towards the stairs. Landon, jumping up out of his chair, moved to follow him.

"Alex? Why are you so curious about all of this? I mean, you went to military school to try and forget about everything so, why now are you resurrecting all these bad memories?" Sam paused in mid step and turned to look at Landon. He saw the innocent curiosity in the boy's eyes and knew that his questions were harmless enough, but yet he also saw the proverbial wheels turning inside the young geniuses mind. He knew that before long it would be hopeless to try and hide the truth from him. Shaking his head, Sam put a hand on Landon's shoulder.

"I just am curious." He said, forcing a reassuring smile on his face before heading up the stairs and outside.

_Getting information from the local newspaper was like trying to pull teeth from a wild dog. It wasn't until I showed them eight times my drivers license and my ID card from the Howe Military School in Howe, Indiana that they believed I was who I said I was and released enough information to me to at least help me on my way. Seems Mr. Johnson claimed he had spoken to the Biondo's personally and they were the ones who said not to use their name or Sebastian's. Something was seriously wrong with that story and I was going to find out what._

After finding Mr. Johnson's house on his way home, Sam decided to drop by and have a talk with him. He had expected to find a man in his late sixties, early seventies, with white hair and memory as sharp as a tack, what he found instead was a man in his early forties who looked at him as if he had never seen him before in his life. At first Sam thought he had the wrong house, it was possible, but not likely. It could have been Mr. Johnson's son? Yeah, that was it, he decided.

"Is Archer Johnson home, please?" He asked politely. The man behind the screen door raised his eyebrow and looked at him for a moment.

"I'm Archer Johnson. Do I know you?" Archer asked, staying behind the safety of his screen door. _That can't be right,_ Sam thought, _He's no older than Bash's parents._

"Um…well…you probably don't recognize me but, I'm Alex Albright. My best friend and I use to come over all the time to, heh, well to get the ghosts out of your attic." Sam said, chuckling slightly at how silly it sounded. Still the man behind the door looked at him with an eerie suspicion on his face. Shaking his head, Archer pressed his lips together.

"You must have the wrong house. I don't know anyone named Alex Albright and I certainly don't have ghosts in my attic."

"Are you sure? Um…I mean, don't you work for the Dekalb Chronicle? You're a journalist, right? You wrote these two articles about my kidnapping." Sam said, franticly trying to get him talking. At the sound of that word, Archer stopped as he was closing the door and looked at Alex with coldness in his eyes that could have frozen Hell itself. It was the kind of cold that sent shivers down Sam's spine and made him realize that there was something this man was hiding, and he had a pretty good idea it had to do with what happened to the young Alex and his best friend ten years prior. Standing there, staring Sam down, Archer opened the door once more and stepped out onto the porch.

"What do you want from me?"

"I want to know why Bash's name was never put into any of the articles." Sam answered, his request coming out as more of an order than a question.

"Because they asked me not to."

"Who did? His parents? I highly doubt that. His parents loved him too much. I highly doubt they'd ask you to leave his name out of it." Sam answered as he stood his ground. He saw the fire flare up in the man's eyes, confirming his suspicion that he knew something but wasn't going to talk.

"Well they did. They didn't want his name mentioned."

"They didn't want it mentioned, or you knew that they'd be too distraught over it to buy a paper and so just decided to leave his name out?" Sam questioned, trying to push the man into breaking and telling him something. Instead, Archer merely stood there staring at him.

"Don't you know that if you had put his name in the paper also people would have maybe been able to find him?"

"They didn't want, it mentioned." Archer said coolly before turning and heading back into his house, closing and locking the door behind him.

"I don't like that guy, Sam. There's something very…very…"

"Hinky?"

"Uh…not exactly what I was thinkin' but yeah! Hinky about him!" Al said as Sam joined him on the sidewalk. Sam face was twisted in frustration and thought as he walked back to the waiting car.

"This just doesn't make sense, Al. Archer says that Eric and Alyssa didn't want Bash's name mentioned." Sam said, leaning against the door of the car. Al puffed on his cigar before taking it out and shaking his head.

"That's a lie."

"That's what I said. Al, I think he knows something about the kidnapping, something that might help us find Bash."

"Yeah that's great Sam except how you going to get him to talk? He pretends he doesn't know you and he wouldn't talk about it?" Al said, waving the arm he held the handlink in. Sam thought for a moment before frowning.

"I dunno…have you got anything for me on Scooter Foster?"

"Just one thing, he's in a mental institution because he's a mute." Al said, a blank look on his face as pressed his tongue against the inside of his lip and rocked back and forth on the balls of his feet.

"Because he's a mute?" Sam asked in confusion. Al shrugged and nodded.

"Yeah, well, you know. You have a kid who's different from the others, probably was too much of a hassle to try and work with so the parents just dropped him off to wash their hands of him. Pretty common…use to happen all the time." Answered Al, thinking back to his younger sister Trudy and what happened to her. Sam saw the look in his eyes and sighed heavily.

"That's just not right." He muttered, shaking his head as Al snapped out of it and looked back at him.

"Doesn't matter if it's right or not. It's the easiest way out and that's what a lot of people look for…the easy way."

"Still. Keep looking, I'm gonna go back over to Bash's parents house and see how Alyssa's doing. Maybe even get Eric to tell me something useful." Sam said, getting into the car he had barrowed from Mr. Albright and drove back to the two houses.

When he got to the Biondo's, he found Randy asleep on the couch holding MJ in his arms as she slept peacefully also. He smiled at the pair and continued walking towards the kitchen where he heard noises. Stepping in, he couldn't help but smile as he saw Addie standing at the sink, barefoot, wearing an oversized army jacket with the sleeves rolled up and her brown hair pulled up into a bun. Music was blasting out of a set of headphones on her ears and Sam could faintly hear soft singing along with it.

"I can wait forever if you say you'll be there too. I can wait forever if you will. I know it's worth it all to spend my life alone with you." The voice sang softly into a dish-washing-wand. Smirking, Sam stepped up next to her and nudged her shoulder.

"I don't think you're mic is on." He joked, smiling playfully as he pointed to the wand. Addie blushed a deep shade of red and quickly shoved her hands back into the soapy water.

"I didn't want it turned on. Sorry…I know that that's you and Bash's song." She said, lowering her head sadly. Sam furrowed his brow and looked at her.

"Our song?"

"Yeah…you don't remember? It was you and Bash's lullaby. Mom jokingly use to call it your song because the only time you two would ever fall asleep to it was when he stayed at your house for the night or you stayed over here." Addie answered, shrugging her shoulders slightly as she continued to wash the dishes. Sam thought for a moment before leaning against the counter.

"Addie? How much do you remember about the day Bash and I got kidnapped?"

"Not much…I was six when it happened. All I remember was being really scared because I thought I was never going to see you or Bash again, and mom was freaking out."

"Do you remember anything else?" Setting a glass down in the drying rack, Addie pressed her lips together and shook her head no.

"Not really…that's pretty much it. I…I think I remember someone calling to say they had just seen you and Bash get into a car with someone…but I don't remember who was in the car or who called." Rubbing his face thoughtfully, Sam pushed himself away from the counter and walked to the refrigerator for something to drink. He had just pulled out a can of Mountain Dew and was about to open it when the basement door opened and Eric walked in.

"Alex! Just the Albright I was looking for. Hey, you're dad and I just finished working on something and we'd like to know what you think. C'mon." Eric said, point towards the basement. Sam, bewildered as to what it could be, obediently followed the shorter man down the stairs. Chuckling to himself, Sam thought about how much Eric reminded him of Al. Both were short, Italian, from what Sam gathered Eric had a flair for the bazaar and each had a dry sense of humor. The only thing he found different was, Al was a cigar smoking womanizer where as Eric was an occasional cigarette smoker who would flirt if he had the chance. Down in the basement, Sam found that it had been converted into part rec room, part recording studio. Sitting in front of a computer he found Mr. Albright tapping his fingers impatiently waiting for whatever the computer was doing to finish.

"This thing runs too slow, Eric. You should have Landon take a look at it."

"It runs just fine, thank you. Is it done yet?" Eric questioned as he stepped over to the TV/VCR they had set up in a corner near a couch. Mr. Albright sighed and finally pulled a video tape out of a machine and tossed it to him

"Rewound and ready to go. Hey Alex, sit down, relax. Hope you enjoy it." Mr. Albright said, finally looking up at Sam as he stood with a half smile on his face. Eric stuck the tape in the VCR and hit play.

"We got some new equipment the other day that's suppose to be able to splice different video together and let you dub over with music, like they do with those educational videos and stuff. Too bad all this stuff was filmed on that KodaVision or whatever it was." Eric said waiting for the video to start. Sam watched in confusion as the theme from "Ghostbusters" began playing and soon two little boys went running across the screen. Smiling some, Sam leaned against the couch and watched as the video continued, showing different clips of the boys from different times and finally cut to them standing in front of the camera, both in home made "Ghostbusters" outfits, their backpacks made up to look like proton packs. The music faded until it became background music and the boys started talking.

"Are you twoubled by sta-wange noises in da middle of da night?" The first asked slowly, a look of concentration evident in his deep brown eyes as he tried to make sure it came out right.

"Do you experience feelings of dread in your basement or attic?" The second asked, his voice much more confident as his bright blue eyes shown out from under his mop of blondish/brown hair.

"Have you or your famawe ever seen a spook, sp..specter or ghost?"

"If the answer is "yes," then don't wait another minute. Pick up the phone and call the professionals..." Sam laughed as he watched the young Alex and Bash take one step forward and hold out their hands at the same time.

"Ghostbusters" They said in unison before Alex began to talk again.

"Our courteous and efficient staff is on call 24 hours a day to serve all your supernatural elimination needs." He said smiling proudly as he only slightly stumbled over the big words.

"We'awe weady to bewieve you!" Bash said, smiling brightly also before giggling and hiding his face in Alex's shirt.

Eric smiled and turned off the tape before looking at Sam and Mr. Albright. Sam was smiling to himself as he thought about how adorable those two were. Biting his lip, he looked up at the two waiting men.

"That was cool. Very cool. Thanks." He said, nodding as he held his hand out for the tape. Smiling still, Eric handed him the tape before turning the TV/VCR off completely.

"Thought you might like that. We made another one for Lyss…but…we're not sure how she's going to react to it. So, we may hold off on giving it to her until we're sure she can handle it." Mr. Albright said, moving to turn off the computer and other equipment.

"Well…I'm sure she'll treasure it once she's ready for it." Sam said, nodding. Eric leaned against the wall and bit his lip, a distant look on his face. Sam noticed this and figured it was time to get them talking.

"Hey, um…I talked to Addie and…she said that someone called saying they saw us get in a car with someone but she couldn't remember who called or who was in the car. Do you guys know?"

Both Mr. Albright and Eric's heads shot up and they looked at Sam in bewilderment.

"How did Addie find out about that phone call?" Eric asked, slight concern in his voice.

"She was at school when they called." Mr. Albright said, his eyebrows knitted in confusion. Sam looked at the pair, confused himself, and shrugged.

"Uh, I-I don't know. She just told me about it."

"It was Mrs. Jenkins…she thought she saw you two getting into a car with some big black man. We told her that was impossible because you both knew better than to even _talk_ to strangers let alone get in a strange car with one." Mr. Albright said, shaking his head.

"Oh…ok. I was just wondering. Um…thanks for the video. I'm gonna head on back home." Sam said as he started for the stairs. The two other men nodded, each lost in their own memory of that horrible day. Frowning, Sam rubbed his face before stepping back into the kitchen. Addie had been replaced at the sink with Randy, and Sam was grateful.

"How are they? Um…MJ and Lyss?" Sam asks, setting the tape down on the counter as he retrieves the Mountain Dew and finally begins to drink it. Randy turns the water off and sighs heavily.

"MJ's ok…Lyss though…I think she's starting to officially lose it. I went upstairs this afternoon to get a movie for MJ and when I went past Bash's room she was in there rocking away, holding a little baby like stuffed Eeyore, singing 'Somewhere, Out There' and calling it Bash." Randy says, raising his eyebrows as he chugs down the glass of water he had just gotten before sighing. Sam set his soda down and looked at Randy for a moment. He was just about to say something when Alyssa suddenly appeared in the kitchen doorway.

"I thought I heard the Albright twins down here." She said, a small smile on her face. Randy leaned over to Sam and watched as she moved to the cupboards, opening each before pulling down things for dinner.

"She took her medicines. You can tell because she's actually doing something." He whispered.

"You boys stayin' for dinner? If you are, that's fine. Alex? Would you go make sure Bash is alright upstairs?" She requested, turning to look at the two. Randy and Sam both looked at each other with wide eyes.

"Lie to her! Quick!" Randy hissed.

"Um…Aunt Lyss…Bash…isn't here." Sam answered, his face crunching as he heard himself saying that. Randy pressed his lips together tightly and gave him a swift kick in the leg, seeing the slowly vacating look appear in Alyssa's eyes once more.

"He's over at our house, Aunt Lyss! Don't you remember? You said he could spend the night tonight. He's gonna have dinner at our house. I'll stay for dinner though." Randy said, an alter boy smile plastered on his face.

"Oh…oh that's right. Ok…well then you better head home Alex before your mom starts to worry." She said, a glazed over look on her face. Sam noticed this and stepped up next to her.

"Aunt Lyss? What day is it?" Sam asked, looking first in one eye, then the other. Alyssa smiled and patted his cheek gently.

"Alex you're such a silly little boy. It's June 14th." At hearing that, Randy's head shot up from the glass of water he had been focusing on and stared at her in disbelief. She never knew what day it was. Days just blended together to her.

"What year is it?" Sam asked, knowing that she was delusional.

"What year is…Alex. You've gone sick in the head if you don't know what year it is."

"No, I haven't, but I think you have…now what year is it?" Sighing, Alyssa pushed past him and started to pull out pots and pans.

"I don't have time for this Alex."

"Just answer the question, Aunt Lyss. What year is it?"

"1988, now go play, I have to make dinner." Sam looked at Randy quickly who looked as if he couldn't believe what he was hearing. Quickly pulling a pan from Alyssa's hands, Sam turned her towards him.

"It's 1998, Aunt Lyss. 1988 was ten years ago. It's June 14th, 1998." He explained. Alyssa looked at him strangely for a moment before the glazed look disappeared and was replaced with tears as she collapsed against him, sobbing.

"No! It…it…it's…19…88…my…my Bashy…is…st-still here!"

_Ooooh_ _boy…_Sam thought to himself as he helped her into a chair. Motioning to Randy for the glass of water on the counter, he handed it to Alyssa and instructed her to drink it slowly.

"Aunt Lyss…I want you to listen to me, ok? I know that you miss Sebastian very, very much…I miss him just as much as you do. Sebastian was my best friend, I miss him every day. But…Randy and I are trying our best to find him. I know that my dad and the rest of the police department tried but…I have this feeling that I know he's still alive and that we can find him." Sam said, looking her in the eyes, trying to see some shred of the happy woman that use to inhabit her body. Shaking her head, Alyssa continued to sob, her hands and arms trembling.

"No…no you can't…they…looked everywhere! Th-they never found him! Th-they gave up!"

"I'm not giving up. Ok? _I'm not giving up._ I _will_ find Bash one way or another. I just need you to keep the hope. If you give up hope then, I'll be fighting this alone." Sam said, determination evident in his voice and he placed his hands on Alyssa's shoulders, forcing her to look at him. Staring at him with sad and vacant eyes, all she could do was nod before standing and silently moving back up the stairs to Sebastian's room. Standing, Sam looked at Randy.

"Keep a close eye on her Randy. Don't feed on to her delusions, ok? Feeding on to them like you were doing would only send her further and then she would have to be put in an institution. And that can't happen." Randy nodded before looking at the food on the counter.

"Ya know, it's probably a good thing you snapped her out of it. She never could cook anyways." He joked, raising an eyebrow before moving back into the living room with MJ, still asleep on the couch.

Inside Project Quantum Leap, Al was struggling to find information that would be helpful to his friend. His quick tempered Italian blood boiled just at the thought of Scooter Foster being placed in an institution just for being a mute. Sam was right, him being put in there wasn't right, no matter how desperate that person's relatives or foster family were to get rid of them. Thoughts shifting back to Alex and Sebastian, Al felt his blood pressure raising more at the thought of two innocent kids being kidnapped and having God only knows what done to them. Al was deep in thought when the smooth and slightly seductive voice of the hybrid computer broke the silence of the room.

"Admiral?"

"What Ziggy?"

"I thought you would be interested in knowing that Cadet Albright is interested in speaking with you. It seems that Dr. Beeks has finally been able to break down his barrier and he has come to terms with the idea of being in the future. I believe he has information that may be of some use to you and Dr. Beckett." Al dropped his pen and pushed himself away from the desk he had been sitting in.

"Let Beeks know I'm on my way." He called, exiting the room, knowing that the computer had informed her even before the words left his mouth.

Al hurried down the long corridors that led from his office to the waiting room. He wondered what kind of information the boy could give them and hoped it was something along the lines of who took them and where they were taken to. Opening the waiting room door, he entered and found Verbina Beeks sitting at the table with Alex. Both looked up as he entered and Alex stood, giving a salute as he did.

"At ease Cadet." Al answered as he returned the salute half-heartedly. Alex's shoulders relaxed and he sat back down as Al came and stood near them.

"I guess Beeks already told you I'm an admiral, but I'm not big on formalities so just call me Al, ok?"

"Yes, sir." Alex answered, giving a small nod as he did so. Al gave a small roll of the eyes before leaning against the table.

"Ok…so, I've been told that you remember something's. Tell me what you've got." Alex looked at Al for a moment before glancing back at Verbina.

"I'd rather not, sir, with a lady present." He answered softly. Verbina smiled and stood up, looking at Al.

"I have to say this for him, he's a perfect gentleman." She said, noticing that Alex had also stood as she did. Smiling at the boy in their friend's body, she turned and quietly left the room. Alex sat back down and waited for Al to sit down across from him before he started talking.

"I've been informed that your friend is currently posing as me back home so that he can set right whatever went wrong." Alex started, his hands folded on the table.

"Yeah, that's right, but we need whatever kind of information you can remember about June 18th, 1988 to help us out. The details of that day are pretty sketchy to us right now and Sam's trying to figure things out all on his own." Al answered. Alex looked up at Al, a slight look of sadness in his eyes.

"Sam's your best friend, isn't he?"

"Yeah, yeah he is."

"And you'd do anything to help him."

"That I would."

"Well, Sebastian's my best friend, the only real friend I've ever had, and I'd risk my life to try and help him. I'll give you whatever information you need, except for June 18th; right now not even I fully remember all the details." Alex admitted a hint of shame in his voice. Al had to admit that he felt sorry for the kid. He knew that having him try to remember events that had been blocked from his memory for eight or ten years was going to be hard on him, but if things worked out the way they were suppose to, then in a few days Alex would be reunited with his best friend and together they could make enough new happy memories to make the bad ones seem like a bad dream. Resting his elbows on the table, Al leaned in to listen intently.

"Alex, whatever information you can give us could help."

"What do you want to know then, Admir…Al?" Alex asked, trying to address his superior officer as he wished to be addressed. Thinking for a moment, Al suddenly thought of Archer Johnson.

"Tell me everything you know or remember about Archer Johnson." Al washed as the color drained slightly from Alex's face and a look of old panic flashed through his eyes before he blinked and coughed slightly.

"Archer Johnson…that's a name I haven't heard in a long time…and could die happily if I never heard it again." Alex answered as he looked down at his hands. Al got an uneasy feeling that things happened between the two young boys and Archer that Alex did not care for.

"I sorry Alex, but, Sam stumbled across the two articles he wrote about your kidnappings and went and asked him why your name was mentioned but not Sebastian's. He said it was because his parents didn't want it mentioned." Al explained. At hearing that the other man's head shot up and a look of fire was in his eyes.

"Of course only my name would be mentioned…he hated Bash. He thought Bash needed to be locked up or…or done away with. The only reason he tolerated Bash being over there was because I never went anywhere without him."

"Um…care to elaborate on that for me?" Al asked, knowing that Ziggy was secretly recording their conversation so they could analyze it for even the slightest detail that would be helpful.

"Archie moved into our neighborhood when we were about five years old. He moved into what everyone thought was a haunted house. Anyways, my parents got to know him and Bash's parents got to know him and when he found out that Bash and I were quote-unquote "Ghostbusters" he'd invite us over to try and catch the ghosts in his attic, only…well at first he didn't do anything. He'd invite us over and then give us milk and cookies as payment for getting the ghosts. Then…God…" Alex trailed off as the fire increased in his eyes and tears started to form. Suddenly Al got what the boy was trying to get at and the thought made him nearly physically ill. Reaching out, he gently placed a hand on his shoulder.

"It's ok, Alex, you don't have to tell me…I think I get the picture."

"He told us never to tell anyone! He told Bash that if he ever told then he'd kill him while he slept and leave his mutilated body in his room so Lyss would find it when she woke up! Bash didn't even know what mutilated meant! He just knew that he couldn't tell because he didn't want his mom to wake up and find him dead! He told Bash the reason he was doing it was to punish him for being a…a…"

"For being slow…"

Alex's head shot up and he looked at Al with tears rolling down his cheeks and hatred in his eyes. Al knew what Archer had really called Bash but knew Alex hated that word as much as he did.

"He called him a retard! Nobody ever called Bash a retard!" Al took a deep breath and let it out slowly as he ran scenario's through his mind. The thoughts sickened him to the point where he had to close his eyes and shake his head just to get them out.

"Alex? Do you know if Archer was a registered sex offender? Or registered child molester?" Alex shook his head as a choked up sob escaped his lips.

"He wasn't…if…if he was then…then the government…wouldn't allow him…to live that close…to children." Alex finally said, the words coming out in staggered clusters. Al thought for a minute before standing. Alex, quickly trying to compose himself, started to stand but stopped when Al placed a caring hand on his shoulder.

"Thanks for the info kid. Believe it or not but I think you just brought us one step closer to finding Bash." Al said before leaving the waiting room. Storming off to the control room, he grabbed the hand link out of it's charging holder and punched the buttons to enter the Imagining Chamber.

"Gooshie! Center me on Sam!"


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four

Sam closed his eyes and turned away. The thought of a man being so sick in the head to do those sorts of things to an innocent little boy made him sick to his stomach. Thoughts about the way Archer had acted when Sam was talking to him started to fill his mind and slowly make sense to him. Gulping back his anger, Sam turned back to Al, who was looking despondently at his hand link.

"Something needs to be done about that, Al. Someone needs to call the police on him." Sam said, the rage evident in his voice. Al scoffed under his breath and nodded.

"He needs to be put in front a firing squad and shot." Al muttered as he shook his head and puffed on his cigar slowly. Pressing his lips together in thought, Sam paced Alex's room before turning back towards Al once more.

"Did he only do it to Bash, or to Alex also?"

"Alex never said anything about himself, only about his buddy." Al answered, shaking his head. Sam continued to think to himself while Al stood idly by. After a few moments of silence, Sam suddenly stopped pacing.

"Al? If Archer did those sorts of things to Bash, then what are the chances that Archer's the one who kidnapped them?" Sam asked. Al quickly punched it into the hand link and bit down on his cigar while he waited for Ziggy to come up with answers for him.

"Ziggy says there's a seventy-three point nine percent chance that he did, but that it's inconclusive since Archer was out of town the week that it happened." Sam paused and looked at him.

"Have Ziggy find out why and when he left and then when he returned." He waited while Al had Ziggy do the figuring. Ziggy may have been a high tech super computer but sometimes Sam felt as if it ran far to slow. After what felt like hours, Al finally sighed and looked up at his friend.

"Said he left two days before the kidnapping to go visit his sister in St. Paul, Minnesota. He didn't get back to Illinois until four days after Alex came back home."

"What are the chances that Archer left town, hid somewhere, came back and got them, and then once he got rid of Bash, came back?"

"You mean had a false alibi? Hey that's good Sam!" Al said, his hope slowly starting to be restored as he continued to communicate with the hybrid computer. Minutes later the hand link squealed and Al gave a triumphant smirk.

"Ninety-Five point five percent. Best lead we've got so far." Sam nodded as he sat down on Alex's bed.

"Now all we need to do is to find out what he did with Bash."

From the other side of Alex's door, Landon leaned against the wall, biting on his lip as he thought about what he just heard. His genius brain racing as he ran the conversation through his head, his eyes suddenly went wide. It couldn't be! Could it? There's no way that project worked! Was there? Landon bit down on his lip harder as he thought back to when he had been bored late one night and decided to surf the web, just to see what he could come up with. He had been searching everything he could come up with from amphibians to time travel when he "stumbled" upon the top secret information for the Quantum Leap Project. Curious, he spent two weeks trying to hack into it and when he finally did, he was awe struck by what he saw. Having learned everything he possibly could about it and Dr. Beckett and Admiral Calavicci, an idea suddenly popped into his head. Dr. Beckett had leaped into his older brother to help them find Sebastian! And with his background in computer hacking, Landon was sure the he too could be of some help. Quickly coming up with a way to speak to Dr. Beckett alone, he snapped his fingers and knocked on the door.

"Alex? Could you help me with something? It's kind of important." He called, waiting to hear what sort of response he would get. Smiling, he heard Dr. Beckett attempt to quietly tell Admiral Calavicci to keep looking and get back to him as soon as possible before he got up and opened the door. Smiling brightly, Landon took his arm and raced into the bathroom with him.

"Uhhh…what's going on Landon? What's so important that you need my help with?" Sam questioned, confused as to why he was being dragged into a bathroom. Landon quickly closed the door and looked at him.

"If anyone asks, I wanted you to teach me how to shave. Got it?" He asked, making sure no one was within listening distance.

"Yeah, ok. Why?" Landon's smile reached his ears and if it were possible to continue, it would have.

"You're Dr. Sam Beckett! Project Quantum Leap works! I can't believe it! This is amazing! When did it start working?" Landon asked, questions popping out of his mouth without end, leaving Sam in a state of shock and then panic. Finally composing himself, Sam quickly clamped his hand over the excited teen's mouth and pushed him to the furthest corner of the room. Once he was sure the teen had calmed down, Sam removed his hand and stared at him in confusion.

"What are you talking about Landon?" He finally asked, his own brain trying to think of how he could have figured it out.

"I'm not stupid,"

"I didn't say you were. Just…how could you have known all that information?" A sheepish and guilty smile spread across Landon's face and his cheeks turned a soft shade of red.

"Um, well…first off I heard you talking to yourself, twice actually. At first I didn't think anything of it, I just figured military school made you crack up or something. But, just a few minutes ago I heard you again, talking to someone named Al about Sebastian. Then it clicked." He answered, sitting down on the edge of the tub as he shrugged his shoulders some.

"Landon…explain." Sam said, leaning against the sink across from him. Taking a deep breath, Landon started to explain everything he had done and learned. Sam listened as the sixteen year old boy told him about finding the information and then spending every waking moment trying to hack in. He was quick to add though that he never once altered anything or even made copies of anything he read. He was just curious and wanted to know more. Sam had to admit that, while he was slightly upset with the boy for finding him out, he knew that if he had had the same technological advantage as Landon did, he would have done the same thing. Once Landon had finished explaining himself, Sam took a deep breath and sighed heavily.

"Ok Landon, I can tell it's not going to do me any good to lie to you about this so, yes, my name's Sam Beckett. All I can tell you about the project though is, yes, it works. Anything else you want to know about it, I can't tell you. Lucky for me, the information you want to know won't be available to you for another year or two." Sam said, lowering his eyes to the floor as Landon's face lit up with excitement once more. Before he could say anything, Sam lifted his head and raised a figure at him.

"The success of me being here depends on _everyone_ thinking that I'm Alex Albright. Got it? So don't go around calling me Sam, or Dr. Beckett, or treating me like I'm not your brother. To everyone around me, I am Alex. To you and Randy though…I'm not."

"Randy knows? How did he find out? Oh wait, that twin thing between the two of them, right, I get it now. But, you can trust me, I won't tell a soul. Heh, nobody even knows that I know how to hack into different computers." Landon said, a sheepish little boy smile on his face. Sam couldn't help but laugh a little, he was a spunky little guy, he had to give him that much. Thinking quickly, Sam came up with a plan.

"Landon, you want to help me find Sebastian?" Again the boy's face lit up and his blue eyes sparkled with anticipation.

"Yeah! What do you want me to do?" Sam was about to say something when Al suddenly appeared next to him. Slightly surprised to find Sam in the bathroom with Landon, Al made a motion to Sam indicating for him to find someplace alone where they could talk. Taking a deep breath, Sam turned his attention from Landon to his holographic friend.

"It's ok, Al. He knows." Both Landon and Al's eyes went wide as they stared at Sam in disbelief.

"You told him!"

"He's here?"

Sam put his hands up in self-defense and to quiet both of them. Landon was the first to shut their mouth, while Al continued to reprimand his friend for having told him. Sam looked at Landon first, and then back to Al, his head tilted to one side with an eyebrow raised.

"Al? Al! I didn't tell him! He figured it out on his own." Sam said, as he shook his head. Pausing, Al turned and looked at the both of them.

"How'd he figure it out?"

"Because he heard me talking to you, that's how he figured it out." Sam answered. Landon, only being able to hear one side of the conversation, looked in the direction Sam was looking and pretended to try and see him.

"I'm sorry Admiral Calavicci. I wasn't spying or anything…and actually, I hacked into the projects files about a year ago. I'm not going to tell anyone about it, I swear!" Landon exclaimed, prying that the Admiral would find it in the goodness of his heart to forgive him and let him help. Al looked at the boy, his eyebrows knitted together as he waved his hand in front of Landon's face.

"You can see me? How can you…" Al wondered, though once realizing that the boy didn't move or blink when he got closer, he pressed his lips together and frowned.

"So he's the one that tickled Ziggy…I'll be sure to tell her that." Sam chuckled softly and shook his head before looking back at Al. Suddenly he realized that he had only seen Al just a few minutes before but that he was now coming back to him rather quickly.

"Al? You have new information, don't you?" He asked his eyes wide with surprise. Al turned back to Sam and quickly looked back down at his hand link.

"Oh yeah! Yeah we got a breakthrough actually. Seems like Alex's is starting to remember more and more about that week. He told Beeks that he and Bash _did_ get into a car with someone, but it wasn't Archer."

"Who was it?"

"Mr. Arnolds, their principal. Turns out Arnolds gave them a ride to Wisted's, trying to be nice and everything. Once he dropped them off, he left and that's when they got gagged and blindfolded. They never saw who had them." Al said, pacing the small bathroom, as he read off what Ziggy was giving him. Sam let out a heavy sigh which caused Landon to look at him in concern. Keeping his mouth shut though, Landon knew that whatever Admiral Calavicci was telling Sam was important.

"Was Mr. Arnolds in on it?" Sam questioned, looking up at Al with a furrowed brow. Al puffed his cigar and shook his head.

"No, Arnolds was put through the ringer and given a lie detector test by Mr. Albright himself, Arnolds had nothing to do with it. Alex said all he remembers is being tossed in the backseat of a car with Bash and driving for what felt a long time." Al answered as he finally stopped pacing and turned to face both Sam and Landon.

"Alex also said he remembered working his blindfold off some and being able to quickly read the road signs. The last one he saw said 'The Village of Lee Welcomes You'." Sam bit the inside of his lip some and glanced at Landon before looking back at Al.

"So whoever took them hid them somewhere in Lee? Where's Lee?" He asked. Landon's eyes went wide and he quickly responded before Al even had a chance.

"Lee? Half the school is made up of kids from Lee. It's northwest of here about five miles or so." Al looked at Landon in a semi-glare before nodding.

"Yeah, that's right. Except he was on the outside of town, the far outside in some abandoned shed or something. He said they never saw the face of their kidnapper because he was always wearing a ski mask, but he thought he remembered what his voice sounded like." Sam was increasingly becoming worn down by this leap and knew that he'd be happy once it was all over with. Faced with four or more problems in one leap was more than he wanted to deal with, but he knew that if he fixed the major problem then the others would fall apart, a domino affect almost. Taking a deep breath, he looked down at his hands.

"Does he remember at all what happened to Bash?" He finally asked, half afraid to hear the answer. Al paused to puff on his cigar for a moment and figure a few things into his hand link. Pulling the cigar from his mouth, he looked at Sam sadly.

"Yeah…" Sam's face fell when he heard Al say that. He didn't like the sounds of it nor the look on his friends face. Glancing back at Landon to make sure he was still paying attention, Sam stood up and moved towards Al.

"Al? What does Alex remember about what happened to Bash?"

"Uh…well…" Al sighed and lowered both his hands and his head. "He said that at one point in time, who ever took them was talking on a phone, telling the person on the other end that they had a kid that needed serious help. The next thing Alex remembered was being blindfolded again while Bash was screaming and crying. Whoever it was took Bash outside and left with him. That's when Alex wiggled out of his ropes and blindfold and took off running. The poor little guy…ran five miles back to town, said he followed the railroad tracks the whole way." Al answered softly. Sam pressed his lips together in thought before he turned his attention back to Landon.

"Landon, do you think you could find every piece of police recorders about the kidnapping? Particularly about the search? Where they searched, how long, that sort of stuff?" He asked. Wide eyed, Landon nodded.

"Yeah, of course! I mean, Dad should have access to a lot of it but, what I can't get from him I'll dig up on my own."

"Ok, good. I need you to do that. I'm going to go to Lee and see if I can't find this shed Alex talked about. Al? Did Alex say if it was near the railroad tracks or he just followed it?" Sam questioned, turning back towards Al. Quickly, Al typed it into his hand link.

"Uhh…said it wasn't far from the tracks, he could hear the trains as they went by but it didn't sound like they were right up against it."

"Ok, I'm going to go to Lee and see if I can't find this hideout. Maybe whoever took them got sloppy and left something behind." He said, looking between both of his friends. Landon gave a determined yet excited smile as he nodded and stood up.

"I'll get everything I can." He said before racing from the bathroom. Raising an eyebrow, Sam looked back at Al who was giving the kid a skeptical look.

"Ya know…it wouldn't surprise me any of he ended up working for us now." Al said, shoving the half smoked cigar back in his mouth before looking back at Sam. Smirking, Sam nodded.

"I think that can be arranged if this all works out."

For the next several hours, each man did as they were suppose to. It took some time and a lot of pleading from Landon to get his father to crack and give him all the information he could about the kidnapping and investigation before Landon had to use his computer knowledge to break into the police records and fill in the gaps on his own. Smiling the whole time, all Landon could think about was how exciting it was to be working with a Nobel Prize winning scientist and a highly honored Admiral and former astronaut.

Al spent his time pushing Ziggy to her max trying to dig for more information while going between public records and what Alex could remember to find things out on his own. He wasn't thrilled with the idea of two people now knowing that Sam wasn't who people thought he was, but maybe, he thought, this time having a few people know could come in handy after all. True Randy was keeping a keen eye on Alyssa, and had he have believed that Sam was really his twin brother, Al was certain he wouldn't have agreed to watch her. Landon on the other hand though, Al was sure they could have done without telling him the truth, no matter if he had figured it out on his own or not. He wasn't sure he trusted someone who openly admitted to being a computer hacker, and he was completely sure he didn't trust someone who openly said he had hacked into _their_ files. Still, if Sam thought it was best to let them both know then, maybe he was right. Having a hacker as an ally might be useful to them.

Sam drove the few minutes to the small town of Lee. It didn't take him long to figure out why it was only considered a village and not a town. Lee was not even a half mile long with only one main road running through it and one intersection to stop at. A half dozen or less streets jutted off the main road and most ended within a block or so. Driving through the village, he continued north, following the railroad tracks carefully before he saw it. It was about a half mile outside of town and on the west side of the tracks. Finding the dirt road leading out to it, Sam quickly took a left and followed it through the cornfield and up into the clearing. The shed itself was no more than a hundred meters from the tracks and about two hundred from the main road. Quickly getting out of the car, he pried the rusted door open and stepped inside.

It smelt of decaying animals, and age old dust. Gagging softly, he covered his noise with his shirt and began his search. He found a small room in the back of the shed which held a work bench and tools. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary there except…what was that? There was a faded blue cloth lying partially under the table. Reaching down, Sam pulled it out and discovered it was an old blanket. Something inside him itched and he knew that they were getting closer. Quickly putting it back, he stood and looked around, this time scanning the room with a hawk's eye. Finding nothing more in that room, he moved back out into the main room of the shed and saw the telephone Alex said he had heard someone talking on. Moving closer to it, a scanned the bench and other surrounding objects until he saw a sheet of paper wedged between the wall and the leg of a bench. Sam bend down hurriedly and carefully yanked out. His eyes went wide when he saw what it read.

"Mabley Developmental Center, Dixon IL." He said softly, reading the paper and phone number over quickly, instantly photographing and storing away the information in his memory.

Sam was just starting to store the paper away in his pocket when a shadow fell over him and he suddenly found himself sprawled out across the floor. Getting over his shock rather quickly, Sam flipped himself over in time to see a man in a ski mask raise a golf club above his head and bring it down hard, narrowly missing Sam's head as he rolled out of the way. On his feet in an instant, Sam waited for his attacker to turn around and prepare himself. It was as his attacker turned to face him again that Sam spun around and roundhouse kicked him in the stomach, causing him to double over. While he was doubled over, Sam took a strong hold on his shirt and attempted to punch him as well. Before he could though, the ski masked man kicked his feet out from under him and the two began to roll across the dirt floor, blindly throwing punches at each other. The man was strong, though not quite as strong as Sam. Within a matter of minutes, Sam had over powered the stranger and had him on his feet. The attacker, finding it to his advantage to be back on his feet, took a swing at Sam only to receive another spin kick, this time to the head. Sam watched as the man stumbled backwards and slumped against the wall, his eyes closed. Not one to stick around and make sure if his attacker was ok or not, Sam ran from the shed and got back into the car.

Once Sam arrived back at the Albright home, he found Landon just coming up from the basement. He was holding a stack of papers at least an inch and a half thick and had a weary smile on his face when he saw Sam. Grabbing the teenager's arm though, Sam quickly ushered him back down the stairs, closing the door behind them.

"What'd you find out?" Sam asked once they were alone in what had become commonly known as Landon's Dungeon. Flopping down on his couch, Landon let out a tiered groan.

"It took me at least an hour to get Dad to crack. Then a half hour for him to give me all the information he could remember, and then about another hour and a half to crack into the police records. But, I think I finally got some stuff." He answered, resting his arm over his eyes as he held out the stack of papers to Sam. Quickly taking them, Sam began to read them over while Landon continued to talk.

"The investigation only lasted about a month…well, the 'official' investigation anyways. They searched everywhere within a five mile radius of town, they figured if Alex had be able to run home then they couldn't have been much further out than about five miles. They didn't find squat. So, they called it off. Never found a clue, and Alex was too distraught to remember anything so…he wasn't any help to them at all. But Dad wasn't going to give up so easily. He kept doing his own little investigation which he's still doing to this day. Unfortunately he hasn't found anything more now than he did when they were officially investigating. So…I don't know how much those recorders are going to help." He said, sighing heavily as he slowly sat back up and rubbed his eyes. Sam set the papers down and sat next to Landon.

"They weren't looking out far enough. The shed that Bash and Alex were hid in was about a half mile to the north of town in the middle of a corn field. Here, I need you to find this and break into their recorders. It's a developmental center in Dixon; I think that might be where the kidnapper took him. I'm going to go talk to your dad; I have reason to believe that the guy who attacked me when I went there is the same one who took your brother and Bash. And I'm willing to bet he left us incriminating clues as to who he really is."


	5. Chapter 5

Author's Note: Wowzers! Does anyone even remember me or this story? Guess we'll find out. I FINISHED IT!!! YAY!!!!! It took me long enough, I know. But hey, first I lost the disk I had it all saved on, then once I found it and finished writing it our internet died and…well…one thing after another but it's finally here and ready to be read and reviewed! So please…stop reading this rant and read this chapter!!

* * *

Chapter Five—Sam's POV—June 16th/17th

I wasn't sure what I expected to hear when I talked to Alex's dad about not only the kidnapping but also their failed attempt to locate Bash. I spent the better part of three hours talking with him though, questioning tactics, and absorbing everything he said so I could try to analyze it later. I told him of the shed on the outside of Lee, but he insisted that he had gone through the shed with a fine tooth comb and didn't find a thing. It made me wonder if we were both talking about the same shed. I finally was able to convince him into going back and looking again, to which he agreed but said it would have to wait until the next morning. That wasn't exactly what I wanted to hear, but it was better than nothing.

Having finished talking to him, I moved my way back over to the Biondo residence to talk to Randy. Since he was Alex's twin, I was sure he could help me in trying to narrow down our suspects in the kidnapping, or come up with one for that matter. I remembered that Addie had told us not to knock and, even though I felt strange doing it, I opened the door and walked in. Once inside I was greeted by Lyle and Jacen, the two illusive twin boys who hadn't been around much since I got there. Having seen their parents I was surprised to see that Lyle was somewhat on the tall side with shaggy straight blond hair, though dark roots showed at the top proving he wasn't naturally a blond. Jacen was a little closer to what I had expected. He was more on the shorter side like his parents and was about average in weight, maybe a little over. His hair though was short and spiked and jet black like his fathers. The two were as different as day and night. It amazed me how Lyle – the sporty popular looking one – and Annie – the Jacen of the twin girls in her choice of black clothes and more punk like ways – had come together. Just goes to show I suppose that the old saying "Opposites attracts" is definitely true for those four.

I asked them where Randy was and when they told me he wasn't there, I frowned and looked around as Alyssa came down the stairs slowly. Her brown hair had been washed and pulled up into a ponytail and she'd changed out of her Chip-n-Dale pajamas and into a pair of fresh blue jeans and a white and red T-shirt. I smiled when I saw her and she returned the smile even if it was a little on the sad side.

"Hello Alex. They weren't kidding when they said you grew up on us. It's…it's nice to have you home." She said softly, as she gave me a hug. I gave her a hug back and watched as she moved towards the kitchen. Lyle and Jacen looked at each other before looking back at me.

"I'm scared about her, Alex. She's been acting really weird but, I think this is the first time she's _been with_ us. Ya know?" Lyle asked, his eyebrows knitted together in confusion. I nodded and watched as Alyssa took a soda from the refrigerator along with a cold slice of pizza and moved out onto the back porch. I knew exactly what Lyle meant. For days on end she was stuck in the past, up in Bash's room crying, and now all of the sudden she was walking around in regular clothes acting like nothing was wrong but yet, not acting like it were the past either. She knew actually what day it was, what year, and that I was Alex aged 18, not the little boy she called me earlier. This sudden change worried me. We only had two days (not including what was left of that day but then again including the 18th) left to find out what happened and where Sebastian went in order to save her.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

I'm not sure why but that night I found it nearly impossible to sleep. It felt as if this had been the longest leap I had ever encountered and the stress was beginning to take a toll on me. I had waited up most of the night to hear from Al, but by two am when he hadn't arrived, I gave up on waiting and just sat up the rest of the night thinking. I knew that there had to be something out there that would break this wide open. Getting up from Alex's bed, I quietly moved to his CD player and hit play, unsure if there was even anything in it. What began to play somewhat surprised me.

"Somewhere out there / beneath the pale moonlight / someone's thinking of me / and loving me tonight / Somewhere out there / someone's saying a prayer / that we'll find one another / in that big somewhere out there / Even though I know / how every far apart we are / it helps to think we might / be wishing on the same bright star / and when the night winds starts / to sing it's lonesome lullaby / it helps to think we're sleeping / underneath the same big sky / Somewhere out there / if love can see us through / then we'll be together / somewhere out there / out where dreams come true." I listened as the song played through and smiled slightly as I thought about the two little boys who would listen to that song at night, probably at the same time, even if they were a house apart. Playing the song again, I laid back down on Alex's bed and before the end of the song fell asleep.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

_dream _

_I looked around in confusion at the darkened room. There were lines of beds set up along side the wall, each holding a sleeping male anywhere from the age of seventeen to twenty-four. There wasn't a sound to be heard except for their even breathing and gentle snores. I wasn't sure where I was, or why, or if perhaps for some reason I had leaped without closure to the last one or not, but I knew that I wasn't liking what I was seeing. It looked like a hospital room, but there wasn't any medical equipment around and no one looked sick._

_That's when I heard it though, a shallow cough from the corner to the left. The cough persisted for a few minutes before it simmered some and a shadow sat up. It gave a small whimper and curled up against the headboard on the bed before looking towards me. Whoever it was saw me and stared at me for a moment before coughing again. This time, a woman dressed in a pink nurse's uniform came in to check it out. She obviously didn't notice me which was almost a concern to me. Stepping up next to the shadow, she gave them a glass of water._

"_There…now go back to sleep Scooter." She said, taking the glass back from them and leaving the room once more. I stood there, still in utter confusion before the shadow looked at me once more._

"_A-A-Are…y-you…an…a-a-angel?" They asked slowly. The voice was male and sounded probably about 16 or so. They also sounded like they hadn't spoken to anyone in ages. Gulping, I looked around, hoping to find someone else there that he was talking to._

"_Uh…n-no…I…I don't think so." I answered, stepping up next to his bed. He was small, that was for sure. Not much taller than a 14 or 15 year old and with the looks to match. In fact, his face and hair…they seemed really familiar to me for some reason. I'd seen them before, but where?_

"_O-oh. A-Are…y-you go-going to h-hurt me?"_

"_No. I'm not. I'm not even sure why I'm here. This is the most vivid dream I've ever had. What's your name?" I asked, smiling kindly at them as I sat down on their bed. Everything was solid around me, but how could that be when the nurse didn't even notice me? They coughed a few more times before curling up under their covers._

"_Dey…c-call me…S-Sco-Scooter."_

"_Well it's nice to meet you Scooter. My name's Sam…Sam Beckett."_

"_S-Sam?" Scooter asked. He sounded as if he were thinking for a moment and I took that to my advantage as I struggled to think of where I'd seen him before. I know I have, except, he was older than this. Eric! That's it! This kid looked just like Eric Biondo! Same shaggy dark brown hair, baby face features, thin build. The only difference was their eyes. Scooter's were near black in color and had this distant glazed look in them where as Eric's were soul-searching brown. _

"_M-my U-uncle w-w-was named Sam…heehee…Uncie Sammy." _

"_Really? I know another Sam…he's a friend of mine's dad. He's really nice. Listen, Scooter…do you know where you are? Or what this place is?"_

"_My name not Scooter. But I dunno where I am. Dis place evil though. Dey don't like me…an' dey take away my Awex."_

"_Awex? W-who's Awex?"_

"_My fwend." I paused to process all this info. God or fate or whatever was somehow setting me up with info that wasn't making much sense. At least, it's not at the moment. Here's this kid who's obviously sick, along with other sick people, who keeps getting called Scooter even though it's not his name, and has a friend named "Awex." This sure as Hell ranks as one of the strangest dreams I've had before. Frowning, I began to think out loud to myself as Scooter started coughing again. It sounded worse than before and I noticed it had a filmy, thick sound about it. That cough wasn't a good cough…it sounded almost like the start of an upper respiratory infection. I looked around for something, anything, I could use to help suppress the cough and finally spotted the glass of water sitting next to the door. Getting up, I quickly walked towards it. Just as I was reaching out for it, a metal gate door appeared around it. I suddenly had a very bad feeling. I looked around and knew instantly where I was. This wasn't any ordinary hospital, this was a mental hospital. I quickly looked back at Scooter who was coughing up a storm now and hurried back to his side._

"_Scooter…listen to me…I know you're scared and sick right now…but I need your help. Ok? Think you can help me?" I was desperate, grabbing at straws and loose ends, but I was almost certain I knew who this mystery boy was now. They nodded which was a good start._

"_How old are you, Scooter? Do you know?"_

"_I…I…e-e-eig-eight-e-een."_

"_Eighteen?" I asked, making sure I heard him right. He nodded but continued to cough. Eighteen, that'd make him the right age, almost anyways._

"_When's you're birthday? Are you eighteen right now, or are you going to be eighteen?" _

"_G-G-Gon-na…b-be…cough cough o-on e-eightcougheenth." Suddenly, my eyes went wide. I knew it!_

"_Scooter? Is your name Sebastian? Sebastian Scooter Foster Biondo?" I asked. This was it. It had to be. He nodded. He nodded!! I found Sebastian! Well…sort of. How reliable was a dream though? I had no way of proving he was still alive to anyone, not even Al. It didn't matter though, I knew and that's all that _did_ matter. I give a wide smile and sat back down on his bed._

"_Don't you worry, Sebastian. We're going to find you, and we're going to reunite you with your family, and Alex. I promise." I said before running for the gated glass of water again._

"_HEY! CAN SOMEBODY GET HIM A DRINK PLEASE?! HE'S SOUNDING PRETTY SICK!!!" I shouted, unsure if anyone could hear me or not. To my amazement, the same nurse walked around the corner though, running her hands thru her hair._

"_Just a minute…Scooter…you're fine…" She muttered, taking her sweet time with getting the water and, please tell me that was cold medicine she put in his water and not broken up drugs of some other kind. I knitted my eyebrows together and moved back to his side. Sebastian looked at me with fear in his eyes and reached out for my hand. Clasping it tightly, he coughed a few more times before falling back onto his pillows, exhausted._

"_I want my mommy…an…and Awex…." He said softly, the hurt evident in his timid tenor voice. _

"_We'll find you Bash…just don't give up…we'll get you out of here." I said, watching as the nurse continued to take her time with the water. I had a very strong dislike towards her. Looking back at Bash, I gave a brave smile though. _

"_Somewhere out there / beneath the pale moonlight / someone's thinking of me / and loving me tonight / Somewhere out there / someone's saying a prayer / that we'll find one another / in that big somewhere out there / Even though I know / how every far apart we are / it helps to think we might / be wishing on the same bright star / and when the night winds starts / to sing it's lonesome lullaby / it helps to think we're sleeping / underneath the same big sky / Somewhere out there / if love can see us through / then we'll be together / somewhere out there / out where dreams come true." I sang as the nurse approached and the sight faded around me. _

"_We'll find you…" I repeated to the darkness around me. _

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

When I woke up the next morning, I had a new found sense of direction…sort of. I at least knew that Bash was alive and that was a start. It was the best piece of info I had found out so far. Now it was just a matter of finding out _where_ he was and how to get him out of there. I had the sneaky feeling I knew where he was, it was just a matter of getting everyone else to believe in my 'gut feeling' and listen to me. Time was running out, for both of them. This had to work. If it didn't, these two families worlds would be shattered forever, and the real Alex would probably go nuts.

I got cleaned up and dressed as quickly as I could before running down the stairs. Landon was sitting in the kitchen eating a bowl of Cocoa Pebbles and reading the newspaper when I got in there. He looked like he'd just rolled out of bed and I wondered if he'd actually gotten sleep the night before. If he did, it would have been a first probably. He looked up and gave a sleepy smile before shoving a spoonful of cereal into his mouth.

"Mornin' Awex…want some 'ereal? Dere's milk in da fridge." He said around his mouthful. I gave a small laugh and shook my head as I poured myself a cup of coffee.

"No, thanks. Any luck last night? With uh…ya know…that research you were doing?" I asked, unsure who else in the family was awake and within hearing distance. He gave a small shrug and looked back at his cereal.

"Nothin' helpful. No records of anyone with the last name Biondo or first name Sebastian. It's a dud I'm afraid." He answered before slurping up his milk and getting up to put his empty bowl in the sink. I was just about to say something to him when I heard the back door open and close.

"Whoa…I gotta get my camera…two of my boys up and awake and moving around among the living before noon. This is truly a first…and oh my God…is that Landon?" A female's voice asked from behind us. We both turned and smiled at Mrs. Albright as she stood there, hand on the counter, looking truly surprised to see us.

"Boo." Was all Landon said before kissing her cheek and heading back down to his 'Dungeon.'

"I'll be on my bed…no calls…" he muttered as he headed down the steps, closing the door behind him. Mrs. Albright laughed as she turned and kissed my cheek.

"Good morning, Sweetheart. Your dad was saying you two are going exploring this afternoon. That sounds like fun. I remember the adventures you and him use to go on when you were little. You two would take metal detectors out into the fields looking for anything to dig up. From cans to coins to keys…you guys had quite the little collection." She said, smiling and shaking her head as she pulled a bottle of orange juice out of the fridge. Turning back to me, she ruffled my hair and moved off for the living room.

"Be careful and have fun."

"Um…thanks mom, we will." I called, setting my empty mug down in the sink before heading off to find Mr. Albright. He wasn't hard to find. He was sitting out in the drive way, leaning against his unmarked police car, staring off into the distance. As I approached, I glanced off in the direction he was looking and caught sight of Archer as he got out of his car and headed into his house, seeming rather nervous. He had plenty to be nervous about. We were on to him, and I had the feeling he knew it. Stepping up to Mr. Albright, I gave a small smile.

"Mornin' Dad. Ready to go?" I asked, hands in my pocket. He looked over at me and nodded, opening his door.

"Let's do it."

We headed back to the shed I had told him about and began the search all over again. I told him where I had found the blanket and also the pamphlet for the Developmental Center. He was surprised to hear about both since he was almost certain he'd never seen them the first time he went through. I led him to the back room and looked over at the bench the blanket had been under. It was gone.

"What the…it was right here. I know it was! It was a blue blanket and it had been right here!" I exclaimed. I didn't understand. I know it had been there.

"An animal probably ran off with it, kiddo. They do that sometimes."

"No, Dad…it was right here." I began a frantic search around the shed but stopped when I saw the ski mask lying on the ground. Our suspect had become very, very sloppy. Moving over, I noticed that part of it had been hardened with some form of liquid which I guessed was blood from our fight. Calling Mr. Albright over, he carefully gathered it up into an evidence bag and sealed it.

"Good work, Alex." He said, patting my back as he continued to search for anything else we might have missed. Things hadn't been moved recently and probably more likely years, but still…there was something not right there. And I had the very strong feeling that I knew why. Archer had probably come back to try and cover his tracks when he found out that I was snooping around for info about the kidnappings. It was possible that he had managed to come back and take the blanket. But if he did that, then that meant there had to be finger prints on the table since a corner of it had been wedged under the leg. I went back into the back room and looked at the work table again. Nothing. No finger prints in the dust anywhere.

"Alex…buddy…I really don't think we're going to find anything new aside from this mask…but even this mask doesn't mean anything."

"The guy who attacked me was wearing that mask…dad…" I said, scanning the work bench again for anything I could find. I was starting to get frustrated when I saw something sticking up out of the dirt near the back of the bench. Getting down onto my knees, I began to dig it out. It was part of the blanket, but not only that, it had something on it. Finally pulling it free, I could tell it had been torn, probably in Archer's attempt to get it free from the bench. Looking up at Mr. Albright, I gave a small smile.

"I don't think that's a mud stain." I said, pointing to the dark patch that ran along the side. Mr. Albright knitted his eyebrows together as he pulled another evidence bag from his back pack and gently took it from me. He looked it over carefully as he zipped the bag closed.

"No…it's blood."

"I'm willing to wager a bet that it matches the blood on that ski mask." I said, pointing towards his backpack where the other bag was. He gave a small smile and nodded as he moved for the door.

"I'm willing to bet you're right. I'm gonna search the outside for anything our perpetrator might have forgotten." I watched him leave and gave a smile as I heard the Chamber door open and whoosh closed. Turning, I smiled widely at Al.

"You'll never believe this, Al, but I think we're getting close to solving this! We found a bloodied ski mask and part of that blue blanket that had blood on. I think the blood belongs to the same person…and I think that person is Archer Johnson." I said, almost triumphantly. Al seemed a little more at ease with this info but I knew this case was really starting to get to him.

"Yeah well…you better hurry up and find whoever it is they belong to and ask them what they did with Bash because you have until tomorrow afternoon to find him and save his mother's life."

"What do you mean, 'tomorrow afternoon'? How late into the afternoon?" I questioned, not liking the sounds of that as I turned to face him. He looked like Hell, but then again, I was pretty sure I probably would too have I had been him. He puffed his cigar sadly, a trait of his I was by far use to by now, and rocked slowly on his feet. He was avoiding an answer; I didn't like that one bit.

"Uhh…well…afternoon is just a relative meaning…afternoon could be 12:01 or it could be 6pm…"

"Al…how late into the afternoon?"

"Ziggy doesn't know. We're trying to find out. Alyssa had last been seen heading up the stairs of her house at 11:30 tomorrow morning and was found around 7 o'clock that night when no one had seen or heard from her all day. The coroners thought the time of death was probably between 1pm and 3. They weren't certain though." I cursed under my breath and paced the small shed, frantically trying to think. This was going to be cutting it close, a little too close for my likings. Biting my lip in thought, I turned and ran my hand through my hair. Looking around, I turned to face Al again.

"Has Alex told you anything else about that day? Anything at all?"

"Nothing really. Oh! He did say though, at one point he thought he heard the guy talking on the phone and called himself AJ…never gave a last name…just said his name was AJ. And that…wait…did you say you found a blanket with blood on it?" Al asked, his eyebrows knitted together. I turned and nodded.

"Yeah…there wasn't much, it looked like it'd been torn through the majority of it. Why?"

"Alex said that he thought he remembered hearing this AJ guy trip and scrape his arm against something and used Bash's blanket to wrap it up in. I'd bet my last cigar that whatever he cut his arm on is still in here…and it probably still has his blood on it." Al punched in a few buttons as I frantically began to search the shed again. Whatever it was had probably been in this room. There wasn't much left in here though. I watched as Al cast a blue beam of light around the room. It was like watching a laser show as he scanned different objects without any luck before landing on a jagged piece of metal hanging on the wall. It looked like it had once been part of a tractor but had been removed due to malfunctions. That's where we saw it, the bright spot on the CAT Scan. Blood.

"That would leave a nasty scar." Al muttered. I only nodded. Yeah it would.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter Six—June 17th

Sam and Mr. Albright finished searching around the small shed and began driving home. Neither one said much; both were too busy thinking about the things they had found on their investigation. Sam was curious how long it would take to run the DNA scan on the blanket shard, the ski mask, and the piece of metal they had collected. Mr. Albright thought it might take a few hours, that was if he called in some favors, which if it meant getting one step closer to Bash, he was willing to do it. As they neared Shabbona once more, Sam suddenly thought of Archer. Turning to face Mr. Albright, he knew that if he took a police officer with him, Archer would have no choice but to talk, unless he ran.

"Hey dad? Uh…could we stop by Archer Johnson's before we go home? I uh…I wanna ask him something."

"Archer Johnson? That's a name I haven't heard in a while. Sure, why not? What do you wanna ask him?" Mr. Albright turned the corner heading down Navaho St, leading down to Archer's home. Sam gave a small smile as he crossed his arms and stared out in front of him. They were going to get answers from him this time, he knew it. Even if Archer didn't verbally say anything, Sam knew he was going to get the answers he needed to confirm his suspicion of Archer being the kidnapper just by looking at him.

"I wanna know if he's had any ghosts come back to haunt him recently or not." He answered smugly. Mr. Albright gave him a strange side-ways glance but didn't ask anything more as they pulled up to the old two-story yellow home. Mr. Albright had never liked Archer; he had always had a bad feeling towards the man. His wife called him paranoid and crazy whenever he brought it up, so he usually just left his dislike towards him to himself. Archer had always seemed a little odd to him, especially the way he took such an interest towards his son and his best friend. It was odd to him the way the man would always invite them over, and thinking back on it, Mr. Albright seemed to remember that as it neared closer to Bash's birthday, both boys were becoming more and more hesitant about going over. He thought it back then, and he still thought it to that day, that Archer Johnson needed to be run out of town, though he could never come up with a valid reason for it.

The two sat in the car for a moment, both staring up at the eerie looking home and neither one moving to make an exit from the car. Even in broad daylight the house gave Sam the creeps, he was sure Al would have a near panic attack if he were ever to be centered in on the inside of the house. The thought of his paranormally challenged friend being stuck in the midst of a so-called haunted house made Sam chuckle a little to himself. He could just picture Al jumping and turning at every little sound and creek and coming up with even the strangest of excuses for getting out of there as quickly as possible. Now, knowing the truth—or at least most of it—of what went on in that house, Sam couldn't blame him for wanting to get the Hell out.

Mr. Albright finally sighed as he turned the car off. Looking over at Sam, he shrugged.

"Want me to go up there with you?"

"Yeah…that'd uh…yeah." Sam answered as he unbuckled his seatbelt and opened the door. Getting out, he looked around to make sure Archer hadn't left before starting up the sidewalk. With every step he took closer and closer, a heavier feeling of dread washed over him. This house had some seriously negative vibes and they showed brightly. _Hinky…this place is very very hinky._ Sam thought, using the term Al had come up with to describe a level of creepiness nothing else could. Glancing back to make sure Mr. Albright was still behind him, Sam stepped up onto the front porch and knocked on the door. He remembered the reaction he got from Archer the first time he knocked on the door and wondered if it was going to be the same now that Mr. Albright was present also. When the door opened, Archer first glared at Sam—which he expected—but when he saw Mr. Albright standing next to him, he broke into a wide smile and opened the door.

"Why Sam! I haven't seen you in years! How's it goin'?" He asked, trying to play nice and surprised to see them. Mr. Albright tensed as Archer called him by his first name, something he always seemed to become uneasy with him with for some reason. Forcing a smile onto his face, Mr. Albright motioned towards Sam.

"Alex here wanted to stop by and say hello. He also wanted to ask you something." He answered, noticing a faint bruise on Archers cheek, and silently making a note of it. Sam saw it too, and he also saw a cut on his other cheek, the same cheek Sam had watched his attacker get cut on during their struggle. Archer's eyes went wide as he turned to face Sam, a hidden threat showing in his steel grey eyes.

"Alex? Little Allie Albright? Wow, you certainly have grown up haven't you? Last time I saw you, you were about this tall and looking for trouble. What can I do for you?" He questioned, his tone of voice changing slightly as he spoke, becoming colder than it was when he spoke to Mr. Albright. It was then that Sam received the answer he had been looking for. Archer gave himself away, just by his tone of voice.

"Well, I remember that I use to come over here to hunt ghosts all the time when I was younger and, I was just wondering if any ghosts from the past have escaped and come back to haunt you? If they have…I'd be glad to call someone in to get rid of them for you." Sam said, his voice just as cold and threatening as Archer's had become. The man before them gave a small gulp as he glanced between the both of them. After a second, Archer gave a forced laugh and shook his head.

"Aw Alex…that's very kind of you. Sadly though, I think I'm pretty well ghost free at the moment. And if I'm not, I'm sure I can take care of them on my own from now on. Thank you though."

"Heh, yeah well, I just figured I'd offer. Say…isn't it kind of warm out to be wearing a long sleeved shirt?" Sam questioned, pointing to the long sleeved button up shirt the man had on. Archer glared at him for a moment before glancing down at his shirt and shrugging. Both Sam and Mr. Albright knew that Archer was giving himself away more and more each moment, but were waiting for that one fatal give away to nab him with. Looking back up at him, Archer shrugged again and shoved his hands into his pockets.

"I'm an odd fellow. It could be ninety degrees out and I could still be cold." He answered. Sam stared at him hard for a moment as Mr. Albright went into police officer mode and motioned to the bruise on his cheek.

"Nasty bruise you got there Archer. Kinda looks like you got kicked in the face. Mind if I take a look at that?"

"Yes…as a matter of fact I do. It's nothing. I ran into the edge of a door." Sam took that as his cue and he stepped up in front of Archer, his arms crossed over his chest. He was going to break this man, and he knew just how to do it too.

"Ya know, it's funny Archer. I stopped by here the other day to chat and you swore you didn't know me. In fact, you were pretty adamant about it. I believe your exact words were 'You must have the wrong house. I don't know anyone named Alex Albright and I certainly don't have ghosts in my attic.' Isn't that what you said? So why now that I have my dad here do you suddenly know me and say if you have anymore ghosts you'll take care of them on your own? I have the feeling now that my dad's here, you'll remember more about the day me and Bash were kidnapped. And also how you managed to get such a nasty cut on your cheek. I'm willing to bet you have a cut on your arm, also, don't you?" Sam questioned, continuing to get closer and closer to Archer, until he had managed to move the man back into his home, Mr. Albright following close behind. Sweat appeared on Archer's forehead and Sam could sense the fear and entrapment the man was feeling as he was forced back into a corner. Giving a nervous laugh, he shook his head.

"I don't know what you're talking about Alex. I've been gone for a few days; I just got back this morning. I don't remember you stopping by. Honest. As for the cut…I…"

"It looks like the kind of cut you'd get scraping it across rusted metal. Were you around any rusted metal recently, Archer? Trip and fall against something sharp to cut yourself with like that?" Mr. Albright questioned, stepping up next to Sam. Mr. Albright had the strangest feeling as if Sam were trying to pressure Archer into admitting something, and if he did, then they would finally put to rest any worries they had left about Sebastian. Archer glanced between the both of them before straightening up and holding his ground.

"I don't have to talk to you, either of you. I know my rights…you need a warrant to come in here and—"

"No, I need a warrant to search your home. We're not searching shit…we're chatting…aren't we? You use to love having Alex and Bash come over for chats, didn't you? But they stopped wanting to come over to chat…and that's when you kidnapped them…isn't it?" Mr. Albright took one step closer to Archer and glared him down, hard and cold.

"I'm not talking to you anymore. This conversation is over. Get out of my house, both of you."

"You know, only a guilty man would get defensive like you are and refuse to answer simple, friendly questions. Got something on your mind you're feeling guilty about, Archer?" Sam asked, narrowing his eyes. They could see his breathing become slightly labored as sweat continued to bead up on his forehead. Narrowing his eyes right back at them however, he began to shove past them and move for the door. Mr. Albright watched him intently as he did and slowly followed behind him.

"Get. Out. Of. My. House." Archer demanded, opening the door for them. When neither one moved, he yanked Mr. Albright by the arm and all but threw him out onto the front porch. As Sam approached him to try and defend Alex's father, Archer drew his arm back and punched him hard and fast in the jaw, sending Sam back into the wall. With both men down, Archer ran down the hall to the kitchen and out the back door. Hopping the fence dividing his backyard from his drive way, he had almost reached his car when he was shoved against it from behind. Unable to move, he jerked and shoved back against whoever had hold of him.

"Now why'd you run, Archer? Don't you know running makes you look guilty? And assault is a good reason for me to arrest you and take you up to the station. See? And today was my day off. Why'd you have to go and make me do work on my day off, Archer?" Mr. Albright questioned, his voice dripping with sarcasm as he pulled a set of handcuffs out of his back pocket and cuffed the man's hands behind his back. Sam slowly moved towards the two of them, rubbing his now sore jaw as he stared at the handcuffs. Mr. Albright gave a small smirk as he shrugged, shoving Archer towards the car.

"I never leave home without them." He said, answering Sam's unasked question about them.

"I want a lawyer!" Archer demanded, still struggling against his handcuffs as Mr. Albright opened the back door to his cruiser and started shoving him into it.

"Yeah, well, I want answers…what a coincidence. Gee…what do you think Alex? Think I'll get answers from him with or without a lawyer present?" He asked, turning back to the man he thought was his son. Sam gave a small smile and watched as Archer glared at him coldly.

"Both."

Sam had watched as Alex's dad drove Archer off to the station for questioning and to possibly get a DNA sample off of him. He knew this leap was coming to its end, he could feel it. Smiling, he waited for Al to appear and tell him history had been changed and everyone lived happily ever after and then leap. Nothing happened. No Imaging Chamber door whooshing open, no voices just appearing out of nowhere, nothing. Knitting his eyebrows together in thought, he shoved his hands in his pockets and started back towards the Biondo home, remembering what Al had told him. It was possible that even though they had arrested Archer that Alyssa still overdoses on her anti-depressants. He had to get to Randy.

Once he reached their home, he found that both families' kids were paired up in their living room watching a movie. It truly was a sight to see. Eight teenagers—four boys, four girls—curled up against each other, sprawled out around the living room, looking like they didn't have a care in the world. Sam knew the truth though; he could see it on all their faces. Even though they might have been watching a movie, they were all thinking about the same thing. The next day was MJ's 18th birthday and they all knew how badly she wished she could celebrate it with her twin brother. Moving past the couch that MJ and Randy were sitting on, Sam gently tapped the boys shoulder and motioned for him to follow him into the kitchen. Giving MJ a kiss on the forehead, he stood and followed obediently. Once they were out of hearing distance, Randy turned to look at him, arms crossed.

"What's up? Find anything out, or do you need me to do something else now?" He asked, leaning against the counter. Sam sighed and shook his head. He wasn't sure what exactly they'd found out with Archer other than he was acting extremely guilty about something, but other than that…

"Your dad and I think we might know who kidnapped Alex and Bash. He just took him in for questioning. But listen, I need you to keep an extremely close eye on Alyssa tomorrow, got it? Don't let her out of your sight for even a minute."

"Why not? What's gonna happen tomorrow?"

"At some point in time, she's going to go up to Sebastian's room and down a whole bottle of anti-depressants. We can't let that happen. Sebastian is still alive, I know he is. I can't explain how I know, I just do. But we don't have much time to find him. So, you keeping an eye on his mom for me is freeing me up to spend more time trying to find him. So, thanks." Sam said, slowly pacing the kitchen as he talked. Randy gave a small nod, trying to process everything Sam had just told him. If what he said was true, and so far Randy hadn't had reason not to believe him, then that meant there was still a chance for Sebastian. There was still a very slim chance that his MJ would get to celebrate her birthday with the one person she always use to share it with. That was a joy Randy wanted desperately to bring to his girlfriend. Finally looking up at Sam, Randy shoved himself up from off the counter and nodded.

"You can count on me, Alex. I won't let her out of my sight." He said, nodding as he moved back out into the living room, a small hopeful smile on his lips as he thought about how happy the Biondo's would be to have their Bash back. He only hoped they found him in time before it was too late and they lost him all over again. That was a pain no one in the family could handle, and he'd make sure he tracked down whoever this Sam Beckett was and make him pay if he did turn out to be wrong.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Alright Archer, let's try this again. Where were you June 18th, 1988?" Detective Ackley questioned, leaning against the wall, his arms folded over his broad chest. The interrogation room was small and dimly lit with gray walls and a mirror on one side. Archer knew it wasn't a mirror; it was a one way window into the next room where he was sure Mr. Albright was and had probably been the whole time. Giving the window a cold glare, he turned his attention back to the near senior citizen aged detective and gave a low growl.

"I told you already, _sir_, I was visiting my sister." He answered coldly. Shoving himself off the wall, Detective Ackley shook his head and placed both palms flat on the table, leaning over to look at him.

"Yeah, so you've said. But see, Johnson, that story doesn't quite check out with us. We ran your history and, you've only got one sister. Only thing is, she's been dead for fifteen years, hasn't she? So what else you got? Abducted by aliens? Visit your dead mother maybe? Now why don't you just agree to the polygraph test and then we can all go home. If you really weren't around when the kidnappings took place, then you've got nothing to worry about. But you're worried…I can see it in your eyes…you're scared that the polygraph machine is going to tell on you. And you know what? You should be scared. Unlike humans, machines don't lie…"

"I wasn't around on June 18th!" Archer exclaimed, his blood pressure raising more and more by the minute. He was a caged animal that kept getting poked and prodded at the petting zoo. He was cornered and he knew it. He wasn't going down without a fight though, that just wasn't his style.

"Good! That's great! Let's just get that test to confirm it then so we all can go home and forget any of this ever happened." Ackley cried out, waving his arm towards the door. Sweat was covering both men's brows and Ackley had already removed his jacket and rolled his sleeves up. The room was slowly increasing in temperature in hopes of literally sweating the truth out of Archer. He wouldn't budge though. His sleeves still remained unrolled though his shirt collar had been loosened some. The increase in heat was also in hopes of getting Archer frustrated enough that he let something slip that would finally bring an end to this cold case.

"I'm not doing shit." Turning towards the mirror, he glared once more.

"You got your kid back, Albright! Isn't that enough? I wasn't around and you fuckin' know it! Let me out of here!!" He yelled, fire blazing up in his near soulless eyes.

"What'd you do to Sebastian, Archer? We all know you had a soft spot for having those boys over. You were a little old to be playing with eight-year-olds weren't you? Invite them over for milk and cookies? Maybe play a few games with them? What kind of games would you three play? Hide-n-go-Seek? Or maybe you taught them a few games they didn't know? Did you get your kicks from teaching innocent little boys big kid games? Maybe a game called 'Choke the Chicken'? Did you ever teach them that game? You know what game I'm talking about right? That's the game where you sit on the couch or chair or bed…hell maybe even just lay back on the floor…and have them jack you off. Ever teach them that game?" Ackley asked, firing questions off at Archer without time to answer. He saw the fire continue to flare up in the man's eyes and knew he was almost to his breaking point. Leaning in closer to the younger man, he continued with his barrage of questionings.

"Who did it best, Archer, I'm curious; Alex or Sebastian? Or did you not let Alex play since he had enough knowledge of what was going on to not want to? Did you make poor little Sebastian Biondo play these games with you all by himself? I don't think that was fair teams. An eight year old verses a grown man? Not fair at all. You're a sick fuck, Johnson, you know that? Getting your kicks from molesting an innocent little boy who didn't even know what was going on. Did you prey on the slow one's, Archer? Is that your MO? Innocent eight-year-old boys with mental handicaps? See that just makes these games even less fair. What other games you teach him, Archer? Ever give him a salty lollipop? So, how many licks would it take to get to the salty center of your salty-pop, Archer? I'm willing to wager not three." He continued to push the man, getting closer and closer until there was less than six inches between the two.

Mr. Albright stood behind the mirror, cringing at what Ackley had been saying. Somewhere in the back of his mind he knew that Archer really had done those things to his son and his best friend. He remembered late one night, before the kidnapping happened, he had been checking in on all his kids before going to bed when he heard Alex crying in his sleep. Frowning and wanting to save his son from the nightmare, Mr. Albright had gone in to wake him up when he heard Alex talking in his sleep.

_Flashback_

"_No…mm…please…stop…mm…mm…stop it!" Alex cried in his sleep, whimpering and wiggling under his covers, trying to get free from whatever was holding him._

"_Stop it…Bashy don't…no Archie…he doesn't understand…leave Bashy alone Archie! whimper Nooo…Bashy…you don't have to…" Mr. Albright was confused by his son's talking. Scooting a chair closer, he sat down next to his bed._

"_Alex? Alex…what's going on buddy? It's daddy, can you tell me what's going on?" He questioned softly, knowing that his son could hold up a conversation in his sleep. Alex whimpered and wiggled a few more times before answering. The words that came out of his mouth shocked Mr. Albright to no end._

"_Archie is being mean to Bashy cuz he's different. He making Bashy do bad things to him…he want me to too but I won't…make him stop daddy…" He whimpered before going back into a more sound sleep and hopefully leaving that evil dream behind._

_end flashback_

When Alex had awoken the next morning, Mr. Albright questioned him about it but only received a confused look from his then seven-year-old son. Shrugging him off, Alex only smiled and went running for Sebastian's house to play. Mr. Albright wished he'd taken Archer in for questioning then. If he had, maybe none of this would have happened and Bash would still be there. Sighing, he shook his head free from all those thoughts and went back to concentrating on the interrogation. Ackley was still egging Archer on and Mr. Albright could see that he was getting ready to snap. Looking up as the door opened, Mr. Albright watched as his partner walked into the room.

"How's it goin', Albright?"

"Very slowly. Get those test results back?" He asked turning to face the other man. Officer Ekle was a man, about as tall as Mr. Albright but nearly half his age. He was new to the force but trying his hardest to impress his superior officers. Smiling, he handed him the sheet of paper.

"Get him to crack and you've got enough to lock him away for a long time. DNA on the mask and blanket match what we managed to get off him. And I had Roberts try to date that blanket…he said the blood on it alone was at least ten years old. That would put Archer there around the same time as the kidnapping, right?" Ekle questioned hopefully. Mr. Albright gave a small smile as a new ember of hope started to ignite in his heart. Nodding, he glanced back at the window.

"Yeah…that's about right."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Sam stood in the basement, watching as Landon clicked and tapped his way into every public record he could find, hoping to track down something about Scooter Foster. However, just like Al and Ziggy, he was unable to come up with much. They were about to give up when Sam heard Al appear behind him. Landon frowned as his computer screen went screwy for a minute before going back to normal, and he glanced up to see Sam turn to his left. Giving a small smirk, Landon chuckled.

"Hello Admiral." He said, looking in the direction he thought Al was. Al opened his mouth to say something before closing it and sighing. Turning to face Sam, he frowned.

"Ya know, that kid really creeps me out." He said before smacking the already squealing hand link to shut it up. Sam laughed a little and nodded.

"What's up, Al?"

"Uhh…oh, right. I thought you might like to know, Ziggy uncovered a new newspaper article about Archer Johnson." He answered, an impish smile playing on his lips. Sam knew that smile, and he loved seeing it. That smile meant victory, though it might be small, it was still a victory. Shooting Landon a glance, Sam quickly looked back at Al.

"And?"

"And what?" Al asked, looking up rather confused. Rolling his eyes, Sam waved his hands out in front of him.

"And are you going to tell me about it? Or do I get to wait for the regular edition to come out?"

"Oh! Oh yeah, yeah right ok. Uhh…Ziggy says the paper was talking about how Officer Samuel Albright arrested Archer J. Johnson uhh…oh, well it'd be today to you…due to suspicious activities. After some questioning, Archer _then admitted_ to the kidnappings of Alexander Albright and his best friend Sebastian Biondo, June 18th, 1988. Sam you did it buddy! Archer is being held for further questioning at the Dekalb County Jail, no bail has been issued, awaiting a trial to be held on a date not yet released." Al exclaimed excitedly. Sam's face ignited in joy as he gave a triumphant whoop and hugged Landon, who was truly confused, but happy anyways.

"What's going on? What'd he say?" Landon questioned as Sam put him back down. Raising a hand to give him a minute, he turned back to Al.

"Did he say what he did with Bash? Where he took him?"

"Uhh…yeah…he took him to the Dixon Developmental Center in Dix…Dix…smack whap oh, Dixon IL. But Ziggy's already searched all their records, there's nothing for a Sebastian Biondo." Al answered, frowning as he smacked the hand link a few more times, thinking there had been some kind of mistake. Sam shook his head and looked between the two men among him.

"Archer didn't use Bash's real name when he admitted him. He used his two middle names." He said, looking back at Landon. Both Al and Landon thought for a moment before, all at once, both smacked their foreheads and exclaimed out loud.

"SCOOTER FOSTER!!" Sam felt as if he were watching one brain work two bodies at once as Al and Landon began clicking away at their respected computers. Wondering who would come up with an answer first, Sam couldn't help but laugh. He was definitely going to have to look Landon up when he got back to his own time. Or make a mental note to tell Landon an exact day and time to apply for the project and he hoped that his younger self would hire him.

"Got it!" Landon cried out a millisecond before Al could. Not one to be one upped by a half-pint, Al glared at him before looking up at Sam.

"Scooter Foster: admitted June 25th, 1988; orphan; mentally challenged; mute. What a pile of…" Al trailed off as Landon's voice broke through.

"Oh man…this is bull shit. Scooter Foster was transferred to another institute! May 15th, 1995, transferred to Chicago-Read Mental Health Center. No wonder we could never find anything! From the looks of it he's still there." Landon said, spinning in his chair to face Sam who didn't look all too happy.

"Do you think that this Scooter Foster guy is really Bash?" He asked hopefully. Taking a deep breath, Sam nodded as he began to pace the room frantically.

"I know he is. I had a dream last night, I saw him. He looked just like your uncle Eric. And he said that the people kept taking away his 'Awex'" Sam answered as he continued to pace.

"Awex! That's what Bash use to call you…I mean…Alex! He was always Bash's Awex. It's gotta be him then! Well what are we waiting for?! Let's go get the others and go rescue him!" Landon exclaimed, jumping up from his computer chair and starting for the stairs. Before he could get part way up, Sam had him by the arm and was pulling him back down the stairs. Setting him back down in his chair, Sam shook his head.

"Landon, it's already past six o'clock, Chicago's at least an hour and a half drive from here. By the time we got there, they probably wouldn't even let us into the parking lot."

"Yeah but Sam, if you wait any longer, it might be too late. You gotta act fast." Al chimed from his place in the corner where he was still standing, cigar in one hand and hand link in the other. Taking a deep breath, Sam closed his eyes and tried to think. He knew there was no way to get Mr. Albright to believe him without proof about Sebastian being moved from Dixon to Chicago. And how would he explain already knowing about that to begin with? As far as Mr. Albright knew, the only thing Alex—Sam—knew was that Archer was the one who took them and that he left with Bash. Gritting his teeth together, Sam clamped his eyes shut and ran both hands through his hair. Finally sighing, he looked up at Landon and Al, both of whom were waiting patiently for an answer.

"Landon, keep the families busy. I'm going to take Alyssa for a little trip."


	7. Chapter 7

Author's Note: Sniff sniff The last real chapter…hope you enjoy it! Thanks to all who have stuck with me and read it so far! You're all great and I hope you all go check out my newest story over in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles category called, "My Prince Charming Is A Turtle?" A link to it is in my profile. Thanks again everyone!!

* * *

Chapter Seven—Late evening June 17th

Sam ignored the questions being fired at him from Landon and Al as he started up the stairs and headed back to the Biondo's. He knew what he had to do, and no one was going to stop him. All he had to do was get Alyssa to listen to him long enough to get her into the car, and then once they were on their way, Sam could tell her of his plan. Not caring if it seemed as if this was something Alex would do or not, he marched into the neighbor's house and headed up to Sebastian's room where Alyssa stood, refolding clothes she'd probably folded a million times before. A sad smile was on her face as she set the clothes into a cardboard box before picking up a pair of torn jeans. Looking them over carefully, she gently folded them and laid them flat on top of all the other clothes. Noticing Alex in the doorway, she paused and gave him a soft smile.

"Hello Alex. I was just…cleaning up Bash's room. I…I think I've finally come to terms that he's never coming home and…and it's time for me to move on. He wouldn't want me living like this. He hated seeing me sad." Giving a sad chuckle, she shook her head as she turned and picked up the stuffed horse.

"Do you remember the time, Alex, when I was so upset about…well I don't even remember what now…but you, Bash, and Eeyore here, you three put on a little play for me in the living room. There was absolutely no plot to it what-so-ever, it was just you and Bash, acting silly and making believe that Eeyore was real." Pausing, Alyssa glanced at the picture on the dresser and gave a choked up sigh.

"I can't get use to living here, while my heart is broke, my tears I cry for you. I want you here to have and hold, as the years go by and we grow old and gray. Every time I see your face it reminds me of the places, we use to go. But all I've got is a photograph, and I realize you're not coming back anymore." She sang softly, running her finger lovingly down the little smiling face of her lost son. Biting back tears, she glanced back at Sam and forced a smile onto her face. Moving up to him, she gave him a tight hug. Sam wasn't sure why, but he knew that he had to dispute her and make her put everything back, but for some reason he couldn't find the words. Instead, he hugged her back, just a tightly for a moment before she pulled back, wiping her eyes.

"Here…Bash would want you to have Eeyore. It was…it was his best friend, next to you of course. Oh God Alex…I miss him so much." Alyssa began to weep into her hands as she looked around the child's room, longing for the days when she'd sit in there holding him while he slept, or racing electric cars with him. Wishing for the life of her that she could sit in that rocker just one more night, holding him and rocking him to sleep as she'd sing and run her fingers through his soft, thick mop of hair he inherited from his father. She wanted nothing more than to close her eyes and to hear his playful giggles from the closet where he would hide to try and surprise her when she'd come to get him for dinner; to watch him dragging Eeyore by the tail behind him as he and Alex went running through the house off on some wild adventure together as the Three Musketeers. She could almost feel his little arms around her neck as he'd hug her goodnight and hear his slow, thoughtful voice as he'd whisper he loved her. Stepping up to her, Sam placed his hand on her shoulder.

"Aunt Lyss? I want to take you someplace. Please don't ask where, just trust me. Go get changed and meet me outside in ten minutes, ok? This is really important." Sam said, turning her to face him. As Alyssa opened her mouth to question, Sam left the room to find someplace quiet where he knew Al would appear to read him the riot act. Heading down the stairs and into the bathroom, Sam almost smiled at the sight of Al already standing there looking none to happy.

"Sam, I don't know what you're planning in that Swiss cheesed head of yours, but whatever it is, do you mind fillin' me in on it so at least SOMEONE knows what's going on?"

"Alyssa overdosed on anti-depressants because she gave up believing in Bash still being alive, right? Well she's already started packing up his room, Al. If I can prove to her that Bash is still alive, she won't overdose! And the only way to proving to her that he's still alive, is by taking her to him, _now_." Sam answered. He knew this plan was a one in a million shot, but he had to give it a try. Maybe, if God or Fate or whoever/whatever was really looking out for him, he'd at least make it far enough with her that she'd see him if not talk to him. She had to know for herself that he was still out there, still waiting for them to find him and bring him home to his family and friends; back to his stuffed animals and race cars; back to his mommy and his Awex.

"Sam you said so yourself that you probably wouldn't even be let into the parking lot by the time you got there."

"And you said I had to act quick, Al, so I am. Now I'm going to need directions to this place and uh…I need one other thing. I need you to center in on Bash and let him know what's going on. Tell him that the man who visited him last night really was an angel—and humor the kid, Al, tell him you are too—but tell him that he needs to play make believe just like he and Alex used to when they were younger and make believe that I am Alex if he sees me. The last thing we need his him seeing me and calling me Sam. That could screw everything up royally." Sam said, pacing the small bathroom as he continued to rattle off instructions to his holographic pal. Once everything was settled, Sam left the bathroom and went to wait out front for Alyssa to arrive. Tapping his foot impatiently, he glanced up as he saw her hurry from the house wearing jeans and a T-shirt. Getting into the car, Sam waited for her to join him before starting off towards Chicago.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Once Al had gotten directions for Sam and delivered them to him, he had Gooshie center him on Sebastian. Al wasn't sure what he was going to see when he got there, but he prepared himself for the worst, just in case. He hoped 'developmental centers' had improved since he was younger, though part of him was sure they were still just as cold and uncaring as they had always been. In his opinion, the people who worked there had been shoved off into those hospitals because they were either too old or too rough to work in a regular hospital. They didn't care about the patients anymore, or ever as far as he knew. All they seemed to care about was working their hours, going home, getting a paycheck, and then doing it all over again the next day.

Al could remember the hospital his little sister Trudy had been put into once they were split up. He'd gone to visit her a few times and she'd always beg him not to leave when the time came and would cry at the window for God only knew how long as he'd get in the taxi to leave. It was a ratty old building the government probably had forgotten they even had and so was lacking in many of the things it required. The outside needed a lot of work, but that was never going to happen, and the inside could have used a new coat of paint and polished floors. Dust would collect in the corners and the furniture was so worn that Trudy usually slept on a blanket on the floor instead of on her spring bared cot. The doctors and nurses always seemed nice enough to his face, though once he was out of their hearing distance he knew they would make snide remarks about not only him but also his 'impossible cretin of a sister.' How he hated the way they treated his beloved little sister when he wasn't around. And when he found out they had just stood by and let her die when she was sick, Al all but went crazy in rage. He wanted to find each and every doctor that had been working that day and make them pay for what they had done, for what they had put her through. They had made him break his promise to her, and he _never_ broke any promises he had ever made to her. He'd promised her that she'd be fine and that when he was old enough and had gotten settled someplace with enough money for the both of them that he was going to come back to get her and take care of her again. Instead, the day he showed up to get her, he got a near punch in the gut. He had nothing left of his sister, they'd taken everything from him and he'd be damned if they did it again to someone else.

Getting zapped into the middle of a sleeping room was not Al's idea of a good time as the men lying in beds all looked up in surprise and began jabbering about the crazy looking guy that just appeared out of no where. Rolling his eyes, Al tried to shush them before they drew any attention to themselves. The last thing he wanted was a bunch of nurses and orderlies coming in with sleeping pills or sedatives to knock them all out. Looking around the room, he sighed heavily. He had no idea which one Bash was, and in a room full of at least twenty or more men, it would take forever to inspect each one to see who looked the most like Eric. Finally getting the men to settle down, Al looked among them once more before punching in a few things to his hand link.

"Are you an alien? You don't look like an alien. I know what aliens look like. I was abducted by them twenty years ago. They did all sorts of experiments on me. But you don't look like one of them. They were taller." A man in one of the beds next to Al said, searching him over carefully. Tilting his head to one side, Al gave another heavy sigh as he made a face at him.

"No I'm not an alien…I'm…an angel." He answered in his most angelic voice, trying to make himself look a little more dignified, a task not easily done when wearing a bright purple silk shirt, bright red zoot suit pants, alligator shoes, a yellow and green tie and a black fedora hat. Hearing that, the rest of the men around him began to snicker and laugh to themselves. Rolling his eyes, Al tried his best to ignore them.

"Listen, I'm looking for someone. I'm suppose to deliver a message to them. Is there a Sebastian Biondo sittin' around here?" He asked, looking at the one who claimed to have been abducted by aliens. Still laughing, the man shook his head.

"You're an angel and you can't even find the person you're looking for!? There's no one with that name around here!"

"Fine, fine, what about a Scooter Foster?" He tried again, still only getting laughs and shakes of heads in response. Groaning, Al glanced towards the ceiling.

"Gooshie! I said center me on Sebastian! Now where the hell is he?! What do you mean he's here, no one's ever heard of him! Gooshie…" Al trailed off, his voice low and threatening.

"My name Bashy…" A timid voice said from the corner behind him. Spinning around, Al scanned the beds another time, this time spotting the little shadow in the corner with their hand raised. Giving a slight smile, Al moved over to him. The kid was looking really sick to him and that only made Al all the more ready to help him. Getting down eye-to-eye with him, he gave a friendly smile and slight wave.

"Hiya Bashy. My name's Al, I'm an angel. Look, that guy who visited you last night—"

"Sam?" Bash asked slowly, as if he were thinking as he said it to make sure it came out right. Giving a broad smile, Al nodded.

"That's right, good you remember Sam. Listen, he said he wasn't an angel well, he was. And he's on a very important mission, ok? He's going to try and bring someone very special to see you and he wants that you play make believe for him, ok? He wants you to call him Alex when you see him. See, he's a very special kind of angel who to everyone else except you and me, he looks just like your friend Alex, but to us he doesn't. Can you do that for me, buddy?" Al asked, knowing that if Bash could pull this off everything would be golden. Thinking for a moment, Bash finally nodded slowly.

"Ok. I can try."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Alex, I still don't understand. Why are you taking me to Chicago? What's so important about Chicago that we needed to go tonight?" Alyssa questioned, turning to face him. They'd almost made it to their destination and Sam still hadn't figured out how to tell her that he was hoping to take her to see Sebastian. It would sound crazy if he said he was playing off a hunch, but then again, Alyssa would probably also try to jump from the moving car if he said he wasn't really Alex and had a friend from the future helping him play the role of time traveling Lone Ranger. Sighing, he shook his head.

"Uh…A-Aunt Lyssa, remember how good of friends me and Bash were? How…how we could always tell when something was wrong with the other even if they didn't say anything or we weren't even around each other?" He asked back, some how knowing in the back of his mind that this was true for them. Alyssa gave a small chuckle and nodded.

"Your bond was somehow stronger than the bonds with your twins. We never could explain it. Why?"

"I…well…ever since I got home, I've just had this feeling that Bash is still out there. And…I've been remembering different things about the kidnapping and I've been having Landon help me with looking things up and well…now, I don't wanna get your hopes up, but…we think we might have found Sebastian. Don't ask me how we did it or what makes me think that this guy we're going to go see is him, I just…I can feel it." Sam explained, hoping that it made sense enough for her to understand. He glanced over to see her eyes go wide and place a hand over her mouth. Tears weld up in her hopeful eyes and she gently reached out to touch his arm.

"Alex…how…oh Alex." Was all she could say. Sam gulped to himself as he nodded. _God? Please God let this work._ He silently begged as he continued to drive.

Once they reached the Chicago-Read Mental Health Center, Sam parked the car and helped Alyssa up the stairs and into the brightly lit lobby. It looked like the inside of any other hospital with it's white and green tiled floor and peach-ish colored walls. Still, no matter how cheery it appeared, Sam didn't like it, and he could tell that Alyssa liked it even less. Scrunching her face, Alyssa gave a shiver as she thought that there was some slim chance her sweet baby had been put into the one place she always swore he'd never get put. It broke her heart to think of such things.

As they reached the nurses desk, Sam gave a small gulp and straightened his shoulders some while Alyssa stood next to him. The nurse was probably in her mid to late fifties and had stark white hair that had been pulled back into a loose pony tail. Dressed in a pair of pale green scrubs, she was too caught up in her crossword to notice them. Frowning, Sam glanced at Alyssa and then back at the nurse. Giving a small cough, Sam leaned against the desk.

"Uh, excuse me. Hi. I was wondering if you could help me." He started, smiling politely. The nurse looked up slowly before glancing at the clock.

"Visiting hours are over. Come back in the morning." She stated dryly, turning her attention back to the cross word puzzle. Sam shook his head and stood his ground.

"We're not here to visit…well, not really anyhow. I was wondering if you had anyone here by the name of—"

"We're looking for my son! Sebastian Biondo. Please tell me you've seen him! He's…he's got dark brown hair and eyes and—" Sam turned to face Alyssa, placing a calming hand on her shoulder as he gently shushed her. Bottom lip trembling, silent tears rolled down her cheeks as she looked up at Sam sadly. She'd gotten this close and now this woman was going to tell them to come back in the morning. Shaking his head, Sam finally turned back to her.

"Is there anyone here with the name either Sebastian Biondo or Scooter Foster by chance, Nurse…uh…Hendricks?"

"I'm not allowed to reveal any patient information without knowing the relationship of the person who's questioning." Nurse Hendricks answered, just as cold and dry as before, still staring down at the puzzle. Starting to get rather frustrated himself, Sam sighed.

"I'm his best friend and this is his mother and—"

"If she's his mother than she should know if he were here or not."

As Sam stood there attempting to bicker with the impossible nurse, a younger looking man in white stepped out of a side room and over to the desk. In his hands was a file that he set on a basket. Interrupting the three, he called over his shoulder as he headed back for the room.

"Movin' 618-198095 to a solitude room. Doc says his cough isn't getting any better and we don't need the little shit getting the rest of the room sick too. Don't worry, he's knocked out so, I won't need any help." The door closed behind him and Sam couldn't help but turn and glance at the door. Something about what he just said struck him and nagged at his mind like an itch that wouldn't go away. Knitting his eyebrows together, he finally turned back to Nurse Hendricks.

"Listen, please, this is very important…when he was eight years old, he was kidnapped and we have reason to believe that he was brought here. He'd be about 18 now…in fact he'd be 18 tomorrow on the 18th."

"Please ma'am…please? He's been missing for nearly ten years now and…and…please could you just…just look?" Alyssa pleaded, tears still rimming her eyes. Giving a heavy sigh, Nurse Hendricks turned to the computer and brought up a screen.

"Name?" She asked, sounding none too happy about doing it. Before Sam could answer her, Alyssa spoke up.

"Sebastian Biondo." Sam's eyes went wide and he shook his head as the nurse typed it into the data base and waited.

"No…no…Scooter Foster." He said, trying to get her to redo the search. Shaking her head, Nurse Hendricks closed the window and turned back to them.

"No one here under the name Sebastian Biondo. And I wasn't even supposed to do that search, so I'm not redoing it just for you, young man. Now please, visiting hours are over. Please leave." Giving a choked sob, Alyssa's shoulders slumped and she looked at Sam in defeat. Tears rolled down her cheeks in rivers as she put a hand to her mouth to try and keep the anguished scream inside. This couldn't be happening, not again. Her world felt as if it were crashing around her again, burying her under all the worry, pain, and fear she had done her best to fight off in the ten years since the kidnapping. Why did this keep happening to her? She'd get even a glimmer of hope only to have it tarnished in front of her eyes. Shaking, she turned and started for the door, leaving Sam to glare the nurse down before following her. As they passed a side door, the orderly from before came out pushing a stretcher with a sleeping young man on it. Sam glanced at them both as they passed and it wasn't until he was at the door and it hit him. Spinning around, Sam's eyes were huge.

"Aunt Lyssa! Aunt Lyssa that was him!" He exclaimed, grabbing the grieving woman by the arm. Turning around slowly, Alyssa barely caught a sight of the stretcher as it turned a corner and the color drained from her face. She'd know that sleeping face anywhere.

"SEBASTIAN!!" She cried, running after the orderly. Blinking and doing a double take, Sam hadn't even realized what had happened until Alyssa was being restrained by Nurse Hendricks at the corner.

"Ma'am! Ma'am you can't go in there! I'm going to have to ask you to leave, ma'am, you're disrupting our patients!" Rushing to her side, Sam took her by the arms to keep her from running more. Glaring at Nurse Hendricks, he saw a far door close and looked back down at Alyssa. She was shaking and still struggling against him, staring down the hallway hopefully.

"What did you do to my baby! Where are you taking him! Give him back!" She sobbed, trying to fight her way free from Sam's steel like grasp. Nurse Hendricks gave a panty sigh and shook her head.

"Ma'am…I don't know what you're talking about. But I'm going to have to ask you to leave before I call the police and have you both removed." _The police…Alex's dad…that's it!_ Sam thought, the light above his head suddenly going on. Taking Alyssa by the arm once more, Sam nodded.

"We'll be back…later." He said, giving her a nod as he carefully dragged the still struggling woman back out to the car. Once into the car, Alyssa burst into tears as she rocked back and forth in her seat.

"They…h-have…m-my b-b-ba-baby!" She sobbed as Sam got them back out onto the expressway. Gunning it, he was determined to end this. Daring a glance at her, he carefully took a hand off the wheel and placed it on hers.

"Don't worry. We're going to get him back. Now we know where he is, we're going to go get my dad and a warrant to search their records and we're going to get him back. I promise."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Landon paced the living room nervously as his parents and uncle waited on the couch for him to start talking. After Sam had taken off with Alyssa, the families began to question what was going on, especially when Landon appeared before them offering to watch movies or play game with them. The kids by now had all gone their own ways, mostly to avoid the "Piss Mist" resonating off their respected parents and knew that Landon was in deep trouble. Addie was the only one to stay close by, having chosen to go sit on the stairs to the basement to listen as her new boyfriend tried to explain the strange happenings.

So far, the most they had managed to get from him was that he didn't know where "Alex" had taken Alyssa, just that he told him to keep the families busy. This was not an answer the parent's bought into lightly. Eric was, perhaps rightfully so, the most concerned of any of them. He knew that his wife had not been acting like herself lately and he was afraid that perhaps she had managed to talk Alex into taking her some place where she wouldn't have to be around anyone or anything that reminded her of their son. That thought broke Eric's heart and on more than one occasion he nearly felt himself start to cry. Mr. Albright was about fed up with waiting for answers and was almost ready to go off on his youngest son when the front door flung open and both Alyssa and Sam came rushing in.

"Eric!! Eric I saw him! I saw Bash! We have to go get him!" Alyssa cried, running into her husbands arms and looking up at him with tears still in her eyes. Eric knitted his eyebrows together as he looked down at her in confusion.

"What? Lyssie…I know that you still hope that Bash is still—"

"No! Eric I SAW HIM!! Alex found out where he was and he took me to him! Eric he's still alive!"

"It's true, Uncle Eric, I did." Sam said, his face set in seriousness as he looked between both sets of adults. He could tell that both Alex's parents and Eric didn't seem to believe that he had actually found Sebastian and were upset with him for getting Alyssa's hopes up again, but he didn't care. He didn't have much time left. Looking at Alex's dad, he began to explain.

"Dad, we couldn't get them to give us any information about any of the patients but we _saw_ him. They don't call him Sebastian any more, when Archer dumped him up in Dixon he registered him under the name Scooter Foster and told them he was an orphan."

"Yeah…I know, Archer told me that…how did you know though?"

"I don't have time to explain, just…trust me, please? We need you to get a warrant to search the records of the Chicago-Read Mental Health Center in Chicago, that's where he's at now. I had Landon break into Dixon's records and found that three years ago they transferred him there. Please dad, he looked sick." Sam begged, his own heart racing as he felt more of the real Alex tug at him, trying to break through to his parents. Mr. Albright searched the man's face before him for a moment before glancing back at Alyssa who was busy trying to explain everything she had seen to Eric. Looking back at his wife and then Landon, Sam sighed and ran a tired hand through his hair.

"Alex…I'm a Dekalb County Police Officer…a warrant I got here is only good for in this county," Mr. Albright paused for a moment as he thought before giving a very small smirk. "But your Uncle Smitty transferred to Chicago last year…and he can get us a valid warrant. I'll go call him right now." Mr. Albright rushed from the living room and into his office at the end of the hall to call his friend to get things set up. Smiling, Sam turned to Landon who was looking just as hopeful as the others.

"It was really him? You really saw him? Is he ok?"

"It was him, Landon. You found him." Sam said, patting the younger boy on the shoulder. A whoop sounded from the basement stairs as a blur of brown hair and blue jeans tackled Sam and Landon to the floor.

"YOU FOUND HIM!?!" Addie exclaimed, kissing both boys repeatedly on the cheeks before standing up and running for the door. Both Sam and Landon lay on the floor for a moment, completely dumbfounded as Mrs. Albright laughed light heartedly before reaching out to help them stand. Shaking his head slowly, Landon readjusted his sunglasses and sighed, looking at his mother.

"Why must I be a teenager in love?" He questioned in a singing tone of voice before going out after her. Only minutes after he went running out, Mr. Albright returned with a triumphant smile on his face. Hugging Alyssa, he kissed her forehead.

"Lyss? Go get Bash's birth certificate and those wonderful finger prints they made when he was born and meet us in the car. We're going to go get your son back."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Whoa, whoa whoa…slow down there Speedy. Repeat that, my ears must still be ringing from practice. Did you just say Alex found Bash?" Jacen questioned, setting his drumsticks down to look at his baby sister. Rolling her eyes, Addie glared at him and scowled.

"WHY IS THAT SO HARD TO BELIEVE!?!?" She exclaimed, her voice raising an octave as she spoke. Giving a small chuckle, Jacen glanced at Emily who only shrugged.

"I'm willing to believe it." She said, standing up and moving to stand by her brother Landon who was panting from having to run to catch up. Sighing, Jacen stood up and stuck the drumsticks in his back pocket.

"Well then what the hell are we still doing standing here? Let's go find Ly and MJ and get the hell outta here."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Both sets of couples looked at their siblings in disbelief as Addie and Landon attempted to explain things slowly enough for them to understand. Randy was the first to stand, having been in on the search—kind of—and took MJ's hand to help her stand. Smiling from ear to ear, he kissed her quickly on the lips as he brushed a strand of hair out of her eyes.

"Hear that babe? They found your brother!" He exclaimed, his heart jumping into his throat as he saw the tears come to her eyes. Trembling slightly, MJ held onto Randy as she looked at Landon.

"Are…is he…is Alex _positive_ it was Bash?" She asked softly. Smiling, Landon nodded quickly.

"Your mom saw him too. It's him, MJ." Springing from the couch, Lyle took Annie by the hand and started for the door.

"Why the fuck are we standing around here then?! Let's go with them!" He shouted throwing open the Biondo's front door and heading out into the yard.

"That's what I've been saying!" Jacen and Addie both yelled back at the same time, quickly following the others out into the front yard. As they reached their cars, Sam and their parents were just coming out of the Albright's home and looked at them in confusion.

"Where do you all think you're going?" Mrs. Albright questioned, arms crossed over her chest.

"With you guys!" Annie called, getting into the front seat of Lyle's car.

"Yeah, you didn't think you could go on a rescue mission without back up, did ya's? Hey Lyle! I'm driving!"

"Like hell you are! I'm driving."

"No, I'll drive! You drive too slow."

"You wanna drive, Jace, you drive your own damn car! Get in the back." The twin boys bickered. Addie smiled and grabbed Landon by the hand.

"We'll follow behind ya's." She said, smiling brightly as she ran off towards Landon's parked car. Shrugging, Landon glanced back at Randy.

"C'mon, you two can ride with us. Hey dad? Dad ya gonna turn the sirens on? Huh huh huh? Will ya? Please? Give us all a police escort into Chicago to get Bash? He always did like it when you'd turn the sirens on." Landon begged while still being dragged towards his car. Mr. Albright knitted his eyebrows together as he looked at the other three adults and Sam. Shrugging he got into his squad car and flipped the switch for the lights. Giving a smirk, he opened the door for his wife to get in.

"Looks like the army's comin' with us." He said, kissing her cheek before closing the door for her. Looking back at Sam, he smiled and placed his hand on his shoulder. Looking him in the eyes for a moment, he leaned in and gave him a hug tightly.

"You are going to make one hell of a detective." He said, still giving Sam a hug. Smiling, Sam nodded, hugging him back.

"I'll just be glad when this is over and we can put it all behind us."

"Me too, buddy, me too. Well, you riding with me or your Uncle Eric?" Mr. Albright questioned as Alyssa came rushing back out clutching the age worn papers in her hand like a life preserver. Smiling, Sam headed towards her.

"I'll ride with them."

Sam could not help but smile as the small convoy the squad car in front of them led the way into down town Chicago. He was sure that the siblings in the following cars were having a blast knowing that the rest of the cars on the road ways were pulling over to make room for them. Mr. Albright had radioed ahead to not only his station but also a few other stations informing them of the situation in case any gung-ho rookie decided to try and pull any of the three following cars over on their way. Alyssa was bouncing slightly in the seat in front of him and Sam could see the first real genuine smile on her face, probably the first one Eric had seen in a long time as well. The radio was playing softly, and Sam could just hear Eric singing along with it.

Wondering why he hadn't leaped yet, Sam stared out the window anxiously. Maybe he'd done something, changed history for the worst. But if that had happened surely Al would have appeared by now to try and help him fix it. There was nothing though. Was he to see this leap through to the end, down to the very last detail of getting Bash back home safe and sound in Shabbona? There must be something he hasn't done yet that's preventing him from leaping, but what? Sighing, he rested his head against the cool glass of the window. Lights from the highway zipped past his window, giving a slow strobe light affect and making him feel a little on the sleepy side. He lifted his head, however, when he heard a voice from the front seat.

"Hey dad! We got cops following us! Is that a good or a bad thing?" Sam chuckled as he saw the small scanner Eric had had installed in his car to help keep him in contact with his best friend and his children who all, for some reason or another, had decided it was cool to have CB's placed in their vehicles. Eric glanced in his rear view mirror and chuckled as he heard Mr. Albright's voice come through.

"Don't worry about them Landon. You wanted police escort, you got it. That's probably Kane County. You'll probably have one behind you most of the way into Chicago."

"Cool!"

"Sweetness! Hey, if we got a police escort then how come you're still only doin' 70 Uncle Sammy? Gun it man!" Jacen's voice said jokingly. Sam saw Alyssa's eyes go wide and her face pale slightly.

"I swear to God, if anything happens to those kids…I'm going to…" She trailed off. Eric gave a small smile and patted her hand. Picking up his own walkie-talkie he waited for the line to clear of cheering before pressing the button.

"Uh, might I remind you all that…for the most part, you kids pretty much just got your license? And aside from Landon have no experience driving in downtown Chicago? I'm content doing 70, Albright."

"Kosher, cuz that's all the faster I'm going." Sam laughed softly and shook his head. He wondered if this is what they would have been like had they have had everyone all along. The joking around and light hearted bantering back and forth, the playful teasing and name calling. It was almost enough to get him choked up inside. He could picture all the siblings groaning and grumbling as their leader proclaimed he wasn't going to go any faster. Glancing at the speedometer, Sam noticed though, that Mr. Albright had in fact increased his speed if Eric was now doing almost 80.

When they reached Chicago city limits, the police that had been following them took a side exit and was replaced by at least two others not far from where the other left. Sam felt like someone important, a rock star or a politician, with all the squad cars helping them make it quickly but safely to their destination. As they arrived at the Mental Health Center, he saw another uniformed officer standing on the steps, smiling and shaking his head. That must have been Smitty, Sam decided as Eric parked the car and the others parked around him. Getting out of their cars, Sam smiled as he saw Mr. Albright go up and shake hands with the other officer.

"Jesus Albright…you always did have a flare for the dramatic entrance didn't'cha?" Smitty asked, shaking his head with a smile. Shrugging, Mr. Albright smiled back.

"Old habits die hard. You get the warrant?"

"Right here buddy. Whoa…made it a family affair did ya?" Sam glanced back as Mr. Albright did and smiled at the sight of eight other children standing behind him, all with looks of sheer exhilaration on their faces. Nodding, Mr. Albright motioned towards the door.

"Needed my own form of back up in case things got messy." He joked, opening the door and walking in. Nurse Hendricks had by this time been replaced by a much younger looking woman who looked as if she could turn and run just by seeing the gang of people approaching led by a uniformed officer. Gulping, she glanced around for back up of her own before giving a nervous smile to them.

"Uh…c-c-can I…can I help you?" She asked timidly. Smitty pulled the folded up piece of paper from his pocket and set it down on the desk as the others surrounded him and, their arms crossed.

"My name's Officer Smith with the CCPD. I have a warrant here to search that computer for any records regarding a missing person, Sebastian Biondo." Smitty answered, his voice quickly changing from the light playful tone from outside to all business inside. Sam watched as the nurse nervously took the paper and read it over.

"I...I'm sorry but…but we aren't allowed to give out p-p-personal information like that…it's…it's against the—"

"Look Ms. Adams, that warrant doesn't care what it's against. It gives us full and complete access to those records. Now either you can look them up for us, or our very own computer hacker here can." Mr. Albright said, tugging Landon forward in front of him. Landon beamed from ear to ear before waving some.

"Hiya." He said politely, though eyeing the computer longingly. Gulping again, Nurse Adams turned to the computer and quickly began punching things into the database. Shaking her head, she frowned.

"I'm sorry but…we have no records of there ever being a Sebastian Biondo being registered here. Are…are you sure that's the right name?" She asked, looking back up at them. The adults looked at each other before Sam stepped forward.

"Try Scooter Foster…that's probably the name he got transferred under." Again the nurse turned back to the database. After a moment, she frowned and slowly shook her head again.

"I…I'm not seeing anything. I'm sorry." She answered softly but kindly, biting down on her lip. The air quickly became thick with tension as the kids all looked at one another then at their parents before looking back at Sam. Randy stepped forward and placed his hands on the desk.

"Are you sure? I mean…have you seen _anyone_ who looks almost exactly like this man?" He questioned, pointing to Eric. Nurse Adams looked at Eric for a moment as she tried to think. Shaking her head, she slowly looked back at him.

"N-no…no I haven't. I'm sorry, honest I am. I wish I could help but…but I…well…this is…this is my first day on the job. I…I haven't met all the patients yet. Lemme see if I can find Clara, she's worked here since forever." She quickly left the nurses station and went hurrying down a hallway. Sam ran a wiry hand through his hair before glancing back at Landon and Mr. Albright.

"Landon wanna play hacker?" He asked slowly, glancing back towards the computer. Landon's eyes became bright with excitement as he looked at his father for permission, nodding his head quickly.

"Can I pops?" he asked hopefully. Mr. Albright stared at him for a moment before looking back at Smitty and shrugging.

"We warned them."

"We did warn them. Go for it." Smitty answered, stepping aside to let the shorter boy pass. Landon landed on the rolling computer chair and slid up next to it. Fingers flying at the speed of light, he brought up the correct database before typing in anything he could think of to identify Sebastian with. When he came up with nothing, he looked at Sam with hurt in his eyes.

"Now what?"

"Try doing a search for patient number 618-198095."

"618-198095? His birthday and the year he was transferred here? They took away his name and gave him a number!? Those asswipes!"

"LANDON!" Mrs. Albright exclaimed, having never heard her youngest son talk like that before. Blushing a deep shade of red, Landon ducked his head a little and typed it in quickly.

"Sorry mom." He said softly as a new screen popped up, this one containing a picture of Sebastian and all his information.

"What is going on here? Who are you? You're not supposed to be back there! Get off that computer this minute!" A stern voice called from the end of the hall. Sam turned his head and groaned, closing his eyes. A large woman wearing pale green scrubs with stark white hair pulled back into a loose pony tail approached them quickly. Spying Sam, she too got a look of disgust.

"It's you again? Sir, I told you before, visiting hours are over. Now leave or I will be forced to call the police." She threatened, not yet seeing Smitty standing near by. Both raising an eyebrow and pulling badges from their pockets, Mr. Albright and Officer Smith gave impish smirks at her.

"Ma'am?" Officer Smith questioned.

"We _are_ the police." Mr. Albright finished as they put their badges away. She glared at them for a minute before stepping up behind Landon. Tilting his head back aways, Landon smiled up at her innocently before getting up and letting her sit down at the computer. Smitty stepped forward with his arms crossed over his chest as he stared down at the older looking woman.

"We have a warrant to search that computer and all your records regarding a missing person."

"I already told him, we don't have anyone here matching the names you suggested though." Nurse Adams answered timidly from her place behind Nurse Hendricks. Shooting her a glare, Nurse Hendricks searched the group over before landing on Eric. Narrowing her eyes, she stood up and walked around the side of the desk.

"What are you doing out of your room? You're supposed to be asleep. Back you go. I don't need to put up with you right now." She scolded, taking Eric by the arm. Eyes wide in confusion, Eric tried to yank his arm back. Sam stood off to the side, arms folded as he watched the older nurse struggle with the shorter man. As Eric attempted to convince her he wasn't a patient, Sam raised an eyebrow.

"It's easy to mistake him for a patient when his son looks so much like him, isn't it?" He asked, finally stepping forward. Nurse Hendricks knitted her eyebrows together as she glared at Sam and then back at Eric. A few seconds of thought later, the woman turned a dark shade of red and released Eric from her grasp and took a step back. Alyssa took that moment to step forward holding all vital forms of identification she needed for Sebastian including a picture.

"I saw him…what room did you put him in? Where did you put my Bastian?" She questioned, her voice cold and determined. Nurse Hendricks took the paperwork and picture and studied them over for a moment. Mr. Albright took a step closer, his arms crossed and his face set in a professional officer's look.

"You'll see that all the info on those papers match what you have in that database right down to the finger prints. Now either, you tell us what room Sebastian is in, or Officer Smith and I arrest you and close this whole facility down until we find him ourselves." He said, his voice leaving little to no room for argument. After what felt like hours of silent tension, Nurse Hendricks sighed and moved off down the hallway. The tension quickly lifting, the group of teens behind the adults gave a triumphant—though quiet—whoops and started off after her. Sam smiled as he too walked down the hall. When the reached the end of the hall, Nurse Hendricks turned to the right and started off towards another hall. One could almost feel the excitement radiating off of the large group as the nurse stopped at the last door on the left. Shifting through her keys, she finally took out the right one and unlocked the door.

"A locked door on a kid with the flu who couldn't move even if he wanted to. What a joke." A raspy voice said from behind the group. No one aside from Sam seemed to hear him though as the door opened into a darkened room. Sam turned and gave Al a look while everyone filed into the room.

"Al? We found him…right? How come I haven't leaped yet?" Sam questioned softly as he entered the room.

"You aren't finished yet, Sam. You've still got a couple of things left to do." Al answered simply enough. Knitting his eyebrows together, Sam gave him a strange look as everyone in the group gave a shaky gasp when the light turned on. Bash was curled up on the middle of the cot, a single thin blanket covering him as sweat poured down his forehead, matting his dark thick hair to his forehead. Tears streaming down her cheeks once more, Alyssa quickly sat on his bed and shakily reached out to touch him, almost afraid that he'd disappear as her hand got closer. When he remained solid however, she gave another shaky/choked up gasp and began shaking his shoulder gently.

"Bashy? Bashy honey…honey it's mommy…please…please open your eyes for mommy, Bashy." She asked softly, her voice trembling. Whimpering, Bash very slowly opened his eyes to look at her. The two stared at each other for a moment as if in recognition before Sebastian carefully pushed himself up as quickly as he could and wrapped his arms around her.

"Mommy…mommy found me…" He said softly, using the same wording he would when they'd play Hide-n-Seek. Giving a choked up laugh, Alyssa nodded and clutched the small teenaged boy to her for dear life and gently rocked him back and forth.

"Yes baby…mommy found you. Oh Bashy." She sobbed, holding as the rest of the family crowded around, all exclaiming and calling out to him excitedly. Sam felt himself grow a little weepy eyed when he remembered the promise he had made to Randy a few days earlier. Tugging on his sleeve, Sam pulled him and his parents off to the side.

"Um…guys…Randy here, has something he'd like to tell you both. And since we just found Bash, I think that now would be as good of time as any to tell you about another family member we're gonna find. Right, Randy?" Sam asked, his throat tight with emotion as he smiled and patted the other boy on the back. Gulping and turning red, Randy nodded.

"Yeeeah…uhh…mom? Dad? Uh…" Sam stepped back to let Randy explain as he moved through the group of teens and approached the bed. Alyssa looked up at him as he placed a hand on her shoulder and smiled. Sniffling, she pulled back and ran her hand down Bash's cheek gently.

"Baby? Look who came with us. He's the one who found you sweetheart. You two could be miles apart and he still protecting you." She said softly, glancing back at Sam. Standing up, she gave him a tight hug, her face pressed into his chest as she cried; this time they were tears of joy however.

"Thank you Alex. I can't thank you enough…and…and I'll probably be thanking you everyday for the rest of our lives."

"I could live with that." Sam answered softly, giving her a small squeeze before pulling away. Looking down at Bash, he knew the boy was trying to make believe he was really Alex. Finally having his eyes light up and a wide smile break across his face, Bash opened his arms wide for a hug. Laughing softly, Sam sat down and pulled him into a tight hug also.

"Hiya Bashy." He said softly, tears forming in his own eyes as he felt guilty over getting the first hug when he knew it should have been the real Alex.

"My Awex…" Bash answered smiling brightly as he pressed his cheek onto Sam's shoulder. Turning his head so he could whisper to him, Bash smiled again.

"Thank you…for bringing my mommy…an' my Awex back…to me…Angel Sammy." Hearing those words made the already threatening tears push past their dams and begin to roll down Sam's cheeks in raging rivers. Clutching Bash to him himself this time, Sam nodded and smiled.

"You're welcome, Bashy. Welcome home buddy boy…welcome home."


	8. Epilogue

Epilogue—Project Quantum Leap Control Room

Al sighed as he stepped out of the Imagining Chamber and run a tired hand down his face. Setting the hand link in its charger, he leaned his head against the wall and closed his eyes. He certainly felt as if he were getting too old for this, but he knew that until Sam had returned home safe and sound, he was never going to get a break. Sure there were times where it was days sometimes even weeks before Ziggy would get a lock on where Sam would be next and that would give him time to get some paperwork done and fight with the politicians and other governmental bureaucrats who were still in speculation over whether or not the project worked like it was supposed to.

This leap was particularly hard on Al since it struck so close to home for him. Giving a small smile, he pulled his worn out wallet from his back pocket and pulled from it an old faded picture from his childhood. It showed two small children, no more than ten and six, both with thick mops of black hair and pale, flawless skin. Well, flawless save for the dark ring around the ten year old boy's eye. The girl sitting next to him however, her arms around him lovingly and her slightly turned up nose and scrunched up face showing nothing but innocence, was smiling brightly at the camera. That had been the first and last time Al had gotten his picture taken with his sister. He couldn't remember for the life of him how he managed to get his hands on the picture once it was developed, but for as long as he could remember, he always carried it with him. Al felt as if, in a small way perhaps, by helping to save Sebastian he'd done all he could in making amends with himself for not being able to help his sister. Pocketing the picture once more, he shoved himself up off the wall and looked up at the half sphere attached to the ceiling where Ziggy's "face" was located.

"Anything yet, Zig?" He questioned, his voice thick and gravelly.

"Not yet, Admiral. I'm sad to report that young Alex has been returned to his own time. It's too bad…I found him to be quite handsome." The sweet seductive, though computerized, voice said from nowhere. Al chuckled and shook his head.

"More than me? Ziggy I'm hurt by that."

"Admiral, may I remind you that you had a part in creating me with Dr. Beckett. Being attracted to you would be as if I were attracted to my own uncle…and from a human stand point, that would not be a very good thing." Again Al laughed and pulled a cigar from his coat pocket. Rolling it between his fingers, he thought for a moment before pacing around the control room.

"Ya got me there, Ziggy." He chuckled, giving a small smile. Finally stopping, he turned back to face the half sphere again.

"Lemme ask you something, Ziggy."

"You may ask me anything you like Admiral. But it would be wise to remind you to ask specifically…I did not enjoy having you shutting me down for giving you answers to questions you did not specify on."

"Alright, I'll be specific then. What happens with the Biondo and Albright families?" He asked, leaning against the wall to light the cigar. There was a brief pause before a few light twinkled and Ziggy began to speak again.

"Mr. and Mrs. Albright are residing in Shabbona, IL where Mr. Albright remains a police officer and his wife the English teacher at the high school. Mr. and Mrs. Biondo also remain living in Shabbona next door to them. Mr. Biondo has taken up as being the music teacher at the high school and Mrs. Biondo has had her pilots license reissued and has picked up again with her pilot-for-hire business. Both couples are doing well health wise and financially." Al smiled at hearing that and nodded, waiting for what else the super hybrid computer had to say.

"Randall and Melanie-Jean are married and have two children and are living in Orlando, Florida where Randall is the coach of a high school basketball team that has gone national four times since his arrival. Melanie-Jean works as a full time physical therapist at a rehab center. Emily and Jacen are engaged with one son and a set of twin daughters on the way. Emily has decided to be a stay at home mother for the time and Jacen works as a studio drummer. They are living in New York City. Lyle and Annie also live in New York City and are married. No children to date though. Lyle is a lawyer and has won several cases regarding custody battles in the juvenile court. Annie is a world renown photographer and sings in Jacen's band 'The Time Travelers.'" Ziggy said, listing off the information she thought the Admiral was after. Giving a small smile and chuckle, Al shook his head before giving a little nod.

"What about the others?" He questioned, taking a puff on his cigar.

"Alexander is a police detective along side his father for the Dekalb County Sheriffs department and is considering taking an offer from the Chicago City Police Department. He lives in Shabbona with two daughters appropriately named Samantha—though he lovingly calls her Sam, and Allison—who he calls Al. Sebastian is a teachers aid at a pre-school in Waterman. He lives in Shabbona along with Alex and his two adopted daughters, Samantha and Allison." Ziggy paused as Al knitted his eyebrows together in thought. He wasn't sure he'd understood what Ziggy had just told him. Processing everything though, he gave a small smile as it clicked.

"All the kids match up…it'd only make sense for them too. Alex always was protecting him. Hope you kids are happy." He said, giving a small smile and nod. Sighing, he looked back up at the computer.

"Alright…lemme guess…"

"Sorry! God! Sorry I'm late! Addie had a soccer game she had to coach and then I had to take Dewey back to school because he forgot his lunchbox and Sarah wanted to go back to the park with Addie and…life was so much easier when I was living in my parents basement repairing computers. Why'd I let Addie talk me into getting married and having kids?" A frantic male voice called as a door swished open and in rushed a twenty-four year old man dressed in jeans and a long sleeved shirt. His eyes covered by stylish sunglasses and his mop of blond hair covered by a Chicago White Sox baseball cap. Al smiled as he saw the young man enter. He was the only man who could wear long sleeves year round in New Mexico without dying from a heat stroke.

"Morning Landon."


End file.
